


Easy Living

by paladin_piper



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: (Just wait for Chapter 3!), Alcohol, Angst, Chapter 2 Tags:, Cunnilingus, Dry Humping, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Grinding, Light Angst, Panic Attacks, Piper Wright/Magnolia (Mentioned), Piper Wright/Original Male Character (Mentioned), Positive Female Friendships, Preston Garvey/Female Sole Survivor (Background), Slow Burn (somewhat), Vaginal Fingering, Work In Progress, emetophobia warning, lots of emotions, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:00:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13874658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladin_piper/pseuds/paladin_piper
Summary: “Remember how I told you that one-on-one interview wouldn’t happen in a million years?”“Jeez, thanks for reminding me.” He interjected, adding a fringe of playful pain to his voice as his hand went to cover his heart as if he’d been shot.“Well, today's that day.”“You don’t have any other news to publish?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow in Piper’s direction.This is the story of RJ MacCready and Piper Wright.





	1. "Oh MacCready. Never In A Million Years."

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my MacWright/PipCready (I WILL figure out a ship name for them!) fic! There are a few tagged triggers in the tags section, though nothing that would be out of the ordinary in a Fallout game (there's the usuals like smoking, drinking, and drug use [only by Hancock] in this fic, too. So much cigarette smoking...) . The abuse mention isn't very long, and it's easy to skip over and not miss anything important if that makes you squick or triggers you. Otherwise, thanks for clicking on my fic and I hope you enjoy! :)

The sun was beating down on Sanctuary as Piper and Nora strolled into the settlement. A sunny day was rarity in these times, but a preferable rarity nonetheless. A light wind beat down on the faded Minutemen flag that flew above the entrance, and the cloudless day meant that no unexpected rain or Radstorms would plague the settlement today. The sun beat down on Piper’s red leather trench coat, warming her skin through the material as she tailed behind Nora; her dark-haired companion clad in blue (which is, funny enough, where Piper drew the inspiration for her nickname from: Blue).

 

The pair had encountered their first Deathclaw together in the Museum of Witchcraft before heading back to Sanctuary. Piper always knew there was something  _ weird _ about that place, and when the huge beast dropped through the ceiling, it confirmed her suspicions. Her 10 millimeter pistol was barely a match for the Deathclaw’s thick skin, and she was thankful Blue had brought her Super Sledge with her. This wasn’t Blue’s first Deathclaw, and she was as prepared as ever for the fight. 

 

Blue had saved her life more times than she could count, and Piper knew she owed her dozens of favors that Nora would never cash in. The former Vault Dweller was sweet like that, helping others without caring about personal gain, monetary success, or renown fame. It warmed Piper’s heart that there were still kind people like her left in this mess of a world.

 

They entered Sanctuary with the breeze at their backs, and Blue went to chat with Preston at his security tower about a settlement the two had come across and liberated on their trip. Supermutants has swarmed the family farm, and Blue and Piper fought tooth-and-nail with the remaining farmers until the Supermutants were either dead or had run off. The small farm had pledged allegiance to the Minutemen, and the pair spent a few days there fixing up some buildings and planting crops for the survivors before heading home.

 

As Preston typed something into Nora’s Pip-Boy, Piper pulled out her pack of cigarettes and tapped one out. Her flip lighter took a few clicks to ignite, but soon it caught and she lit her cigarette while it rested between her lips. Soon, Nora was back by her side, fiddling with her Pip-Boy as they walked through the settlement. Piper noticed the touch of red to her freckles cheeks after being so close to Preston, but it wasn’t acknowledged beyond a soft smirk.

 

Nora had done a lot of work on this place, building it up from destroyed houses into its own little city. There were merchants and trade centers now, and gardens growing in the backyards of all of the small shacks she had built for the settlers who lived there. The companions, however, lived in apartments like the ones that were scattered throughout Boston, except not as dilapidated; it was nice to have a place to call her own outside of Diamond City. Nora did so much for them, and for Piper, for the first time since her dad passed away, it made her feel like she had a real family outside of Nat.

 

The two entered one of the large centers in the middle of town, where Deacon was hunched over at the weapons workbench fiddling with the scope of his sniper rifle. His pompadour wig was settled haphazardly on his head, and he was wearing yet another disguise: this time, a black vest with a white button down under it, and black slacks that somehow had a perfect crease to them without an iron to be found. His signature sunglasses were slid halfway down his nose, revealing sharp blue eyes focused on centering a piece of glass in the scope. If Deacon wasn’t such a shady character, Piper might have actually described him as ‘attractive’.

 

“You know I  _ can _ talk and work at the same time, right?” Deacon’s sarcasm dripped from his words, and Piper rolled her eyes with a half-smile. Nora chuckled, shaking her head as Deacon leaned away from the weapons bench to look at the two women. “How can I help you two lovely ladies on this fine afternoon? Wait, let me guess: you want me back on deck, don’t you boss? I got to admit, things have been pretty quiet without you.” 

 

Piper looked at Nora, then at Deacon, then back to Nora. Her cigarette had reached its filter, and she turned to flick it into the ashtray behind her. Blue had been working with the Railroad for some time now, trying to gain favor with the faction. Deacon was her ticket for that, and Piper just nodded her head when Blue looked at her.

 

“You two are heading out together? Not sure the Commonwealth's ready for that.” She commented, watching as Deacon pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. He grinned at Piper, wide and proud, then crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“What’s there to worry about? How much trouble could two people get into?”

 

Piper laughed at Deacon’s response, waving a hand in the air. “I don’t have enough time in the day to list all of the ways.”

 

“Take care of Sanctuary while I’m gone,” Nora said, turning to Piper. “Nick is heading out later, so you’ll basically be one of the only adults I trust here. Make sure the place doesn’t burn down while I’m gone, okay?”

 

“Of course, Blue. Anything for you,” Piper replied with a smile. “Make sure you say bye to Preston before you leave, though.”

 

Deacon snorted as Nora’s face went red, and she looked like she was searching for a comeback. When she failed to think of one in time, she just huffed and walked out, Deacon laughing behind her.

 

“Bye, Piper!” He called back, and then they were gone. 

 

Even though Sanctuary was constantly busy, whenever Blue left the place always felt quieter. Smaller. 

 

As she stepped outside, Piper took a moment to survey her surroundings. In the gardens, she could see new settlers working side-by-side with Curie and Codsworth. Blue had been on a mission to find Curie a human body, but things like that took time. For now, she was still in her Miss Nanny body, tilling the dirt as Codsworth planted carrot seeds. Trashcan Carla and her Brahmin were absent today, though she saw a merchant whose name she didn’t know walk into the trading center next door. Across from her was the bar, and she could hear the faint sounds of Diamond City radio playing through the thin walls. The roads were pretty much empty, with most people either taking shelter from the sudden mid-day heat or working at either the trading center or the gardens.

 

The sign above the bar was written in colorful neon letters, spelling out “The Lusty Deathclaw”; an inside joke between Hancock and Cait that had spiraled out of control. Piper stepped inside and looked around, trying to find a familiar face to pass some time with. The first two people she spotted, ironically enough, were Hancock and Cait. Cait was clutching a bottle of Gwinnett’s Stout, laughing at something that Hancock had said in between huffs of Jet. Cait looked drunk off of her ass, which was pretty typical of her. Hancock’s eyes were spaced out from the Jet, and Piper gave the pair a smile and a wave as she walked over.

 

“Hey, look. It’s the little journalist who could. Heard you took down your first Deathclaw. How’d it go?” Hancock asked, his voice raspy as he rearranged himself in the worn armchair he was draped across. 

 

“That was more Blue’s handiwork than my own.” She admitted, scratching the back of her neck. Hancock offered the small red tube of Jet in Piper’s direction, and she declined with a shake of her hand, pulling out her cigarettes and pulling one out. Cait and Hancock both bummed from her, and the trio lit their cigarettes together in the small flame produced by Piper’s lighter.

 

“If ya ask me, I’d much rather have something else between my lips.” Between Cait’s thick accent and the slur from the alcohol, Piper could barely understand what she said. It wasn’t until Cait made a suggestive hand gesture with two fingers and her tongue between them that Piper picked up on what it was. She frowned, making a noise of disgust at Cait’s words.

 

“Oh, Cait, c’mon. Where are your manners?” Hancock said, waving his cigarette in Cait’s face, close enough to burn her fair skin. “Piper’s a  _ lady,  _ and if you want a lady to fall for you, you can’t do that.”

 

“Thank you Han—“

 

“— You do it like this.” Hancock imitated Cait’s hand gesture, waggling his tongue even harder than Cait did. He used his other hand to mimic a “ _ come here _ ” motion, and Piper rolled her eyes in disgust as Cait yelled with laughter.

 

“—Cock.” Piper deadpanned the last half of his surname, walking away with a quiet  _ goodbye _ as Cait and Hancock howled at something incomprehensible that Cait had slurred.

 

Piper took a seat at the bar and waved over the bartender for a shot of whiskey. The Mr. Handy brought the drink over as Piper put her cigarette out; she shot it back fast and it burned her throat. Wiping her mouth on the back of her glove, Piper pushed the glass back at the bartender, then pulled her notebook from her pocket. The worn pages were covered in scribbles, half-baked stories that weren’t up to her publishing standards. She had started to write something out about her encounter with the Deathclaw, but she wasn’t a fan of writing articles about herself. The readers of  _ Publick Occurrences  _ had eaten up her last story about Blue.  _ Maybe if I write it about her conquering the behemoth of the Commonwealth… _

 

Her train of thought was interrupted by a cold hand squeezing her shoulder, and she turned around to see the friendly face of Nick Valentine behind her. “Nice to have you back, Piper. Get any good story ideas while you were out?” He asked, sitting on the stool next to her.

 

Piper sighed and closed her notebook. “Nothing yet. Maybe I’ll write about Blue with that Deathclaw, or maybe I could interview someone… Nick?”

 

“Absolutely not. After your story on Mayor McDonough, the last thing your paper needs is a story about another synth. Diamond City will riot.” 

 

Piper laughed. “It could use a good riot.

 

Their conversation was interrupted by the bartender bringing over two shots of vodka cut with Nuka Cola. Nick and Piper clinked their glasses together before taking the shot, and Piper puckered her lips at how rough the liquor was, even though it was mixed. 

 

“Hopefully it doesn’t while I’m there. I’m too old to deal with that shit.” The sentiment made Piper laugh again, and Nick continued speaking once she died down. “Want to come?”

 

“Thanks for the offer Nick, but I think I’ll stay put. I’d rather be in a place where they  _ aren’t _ trying to throw me in jail every fifteen minutes.”

 

It was Nick’s turn to laugh, and then he rose from his barstool. “I think the boys in Diamond City security miss tossing you in the Piper Suite. They’ve had to rename it now, since you’re not constantly occupying it.” The comment made her sigh; she missed the big city, but this is where she was needed. Pulling a letter addressed to Nat out of her coat, she passed it to Nick, who tucked it into his pocket.

 

“Stay safe, and tell Nat and Ellie I said hi.” With a tip of his hat, Nick walked out of the bar, leaving Piper all alone again. Cait and Hancock were passed out in their chairs, the bottle Cait had been drinking from rolling lazily on the floor. The bar was silent now, save for the soft music floating in from the grainy speakers of the radio.

 

_ Living for you is easy living, _

_ It's easy to live when you're in love. _ __  
_ And I'm so in love, _ _  
_ __ There is nothing in life but you...

 

Piper shoved her notebook back into her pocket and tossed a few caps on the bar before walking out. The sun beat down on her and she adjusted her two-tone scarf, trying to alleviate some of the heat as she gazed around Sanctuary.

 

She mulled over who to talk to next, now set on getting an interview for her next paper. Preston was on guard duty and she didn’t want to bother him as he worked. Danse was on duty as well, but Piper just didn't want to bother with him in general. He was always so… condescending. Piper couldn’t stand the holier-than-thou idealism the Brotherhood of Steel held sometimes. The one time Blue had taken her on the Prydwen, she felt like she was going crazy from all of the snobbery on board.  _ At least the Institute are snobs in secret. _

 

Looking to her left, Piper saw Strong asleep against the side of a house, and she figured it was best to let sleeping dogs (or in this case, Supermutants) lie. Speaking of dogs… Dogmeat was nowhere to be seen. Piper figured that Nick must have taken him on the trip to Diamond City for protection and companionship.

 

That left just one person left that Piper knew she could talk to: MacCready. Robert Joseph MacCready, with his sniper rifle always by his side, and a passion for caps and hard liquor. She was shocked he wasn’t at the bar, which meant that he was probably in his apartment. Though boisterous, he was awkward and shy; a soft air of sadness always followed him, and Piper could tell it was the source of some of the lines on his face. 

 

Everyone in Sanctuary seemed to have a buddy, except for him. And now, Piper’s buddy Blue was gone too. 

 

It was a short walk from the bar to the apartments, and Piper climbed the stairs to his room on the third floor. Her knuckles rapped against the wooden door, but the only answer she got was silence. Another knock, this time with a fist, and then a voice filled with sleep responded: “Gimme a minute.” There was some shuffling, a  **_thud_ ** , and then a withheld curse, but soon MacCready opened the door. 

 

His eyes were still shut as he finished tugging a worn white shirt over his thin frame, and his bedhead was an absolute disaster. There was sleep in his voice as he spoke, accentuated by a long yawn before he started to talk. “I told you, Hancock, I don’t have your c— Piper!” When he finally blinked open his eyes, she knew MacCready had finally realized it wasn’t the ghoul mayor at his door, but instead the investigative journalist. He straightened himself out, pushing his hair down as best he could with those gangly fingers of his. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Do you want to wake up first, or should I tell you now?” She said with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest. Her notebook poked out of her pocket, and her fingers itched to start writing.

 

An embarrassed expression crossed MacCready’s face, and he held up a finger before closing the door. When he opened the door, his room had been tidied up and he was dressed in his full apparel, jacket and all. “What’s up?”

 

“Remember how I told you that one-on-one interview wouldn’t happen  _ in a million years _ ?”

 

“Jeez, thanks for reminding me.” He interjected, adding a fringe of playful pain to his voice as his hand went to cover his heart as if he’d been shot.

 

“Well, today's that day.”

 

“You don’t have any other news to publish?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow in Piper’s direction. She didn’t answer, but apparently that was enough of an answer for him. Stepping aside, he let her in his room, shutting the door behind her.

 

His room was laid out just like the other rooms in the apartment building: there was a desk with a chair pressed against one wall, a bed pressed against the other with a small nightstand next to it. A large, rust-colored ashtray stood in front of his nightstand, the bent butts of cigarettes sticking out of it every which way.  On the chest of drawers tucked away in the corner sat his sniper rifle: it had been expertly taken apart for what looked like some routine maintenance. The only object on his nightstand was a small wooden soldier, the paint faded and the wood worn.

 

Through the shadow of the thick blinds, Piper could barely make out a homemade bipod mounted on the windowsill. His apartment faced one of the only entrances into Sanctuary, and Piper figured that wasn’t pure coincidence. MacCready was the best sniper in Sanctuary, and one of the best she had ever seen; knowing that if anything happened, MacCready would be there to protect the town made her feel just a bit safer. Now it made sense why he spent so much time in his room: he was always ready for an attack.  _ Wonder what happened to him to make him so protective. _

 

Truth be told, even though they were friends, there was a lot about MacCready that Piper didn’t know. What she did know about him, however, was from secondhand accounts: he was an ex-Gunner turned mercenary, and lived in the Capital Wasteland as a kid. He was part of some kids-only settlement called Little Lamplight, where he had been the mayor for some time. Piper couldn’t picture as a him mayor, much less as a child, but from what she had heard, he was quite the little foul-mouthed asshole. Certainly a change, considering that now he barely swore for some reason or another; Piper hoped he wasn’t secretly some Children of Atom nut… but  _ that _ would be a good story. ‘ _ Acolyte of Atom Interviews Fellow Member!’ That would be a shocking headline, for sure. _

 

“I haven’t interviewed anyone since Blue. I figured my readers could use a good life story, and I know how eager you are,” she commented, turning to sit in the desk chair. MacCready moved behind it, pulling it out for her. The little gesture caught Piper off-guard, and she smiled as she sat. Finding someone with manners in the Commonwealth was almost as rare as finding purified water, and she never thought a contract killer of all people would have such manners.

 

MacCready then sat across from her, sinking into the worn mattress of his bed. His room was small, and there wasn’t much space between their legs. “You sure you don’t want the seat?” She offered, pulling out her notebook and placing it on the scratched surface of the desk. MacCready shook his head, holding up a hand in protest. “You’re the guest, you get the chair.”

 

“Well, thanks.” Pulling out her pen from the side of her glove, she licked the nub to get the ink started, then pressed it to the paper. “Why don’t we start at the beginning? Tell me about your childhood at Little Lamplight.”

 

“Oh, sh-- man. I’m gonna need a cigarette for this.” The two of them chuckled at his comment, and Piper went to pull out her carton. MacCready shook his head and instead pulled a pack out of his pocket. He passed Piper a cigarette, then retrieved a flip lighter from a different pocket. “It’s running a little low on oil, mind lighting up with me?” He asked, shaking the lighter as he spoke.

 

It took a few clicks to get it to light, but once the flame sprung up, the pair leaned in to catch the ends of their cigarettes on it. As they both puffed through the filter, Piper noticed for the first time just how blue MacCready’s eyes were. Usually his hat hung too low for most people to get a good look at them, but as he focused on the flame Piper could see that they were almost the same shade as the bright sky on a cloudless day. Color rushed to her cheeks, but she could blame that on the dancing flame between them if questioned.  _ No need to get all girly, Piper. Focus on your interview. _

 

Smoke began to fill the air around the two of them, and they both pulled back. MacCready took a long drag then blew the smoke out of his nose; it curled around him like a Deathclaw’s exhale during the winter, and Piper was thoroughly impressed. She wasn’t sure if he was doing that out of instinct or to impress her, but either way, it was still cool to see.

 

“Never been able to do that,” Piper commented, smoke dripping off of her lips with every word.

 

“After the interview I’ll show you how if you want,” he replied with his cigarette between his lips. “Oh, do you want a drink?” Piper nodded, and MacCready stood up and went to his dresser. Out came two clean glasses and a half-full bottle of whiskey, the labeling peeling and cracked. Two glasses were soon poured, and MacCready handed one to Piper as he walked back to his bed. She thanked him before taking a small sip, and licked her lips at the taste: it was warm, but better than the stuff they were serving at the bar. Piper accepted the trade-off, and took another sip.

 

She leaned back into her notebook, waiting for MacCready to answer her aforementioned question once he was settled. After a sip of whiskey and another draw of his cigarette, he spoke. His voice was soft, quiet, as if he was reminiscing on his childhood with every word.

 

“I don’t remember much before Little Lamplight, but I mean, how could I? I was a baby. No idea who my parents are or were, which is probably a good thing. Records show I was found outside of Little Lamplight when I was three, which was in 2268. I was a little sh-- ah,  _ jerk _ of a kid.”

 

Piper raised the hand that had the pen in it, cutting him off. “I gotta ask, why don’t you curse? Why do you always stop yourself like that?”

 

MacCready sighed, looking away from Piper and swirling his glass of whiskey in his hand. “It’s… I made a promise to myself, and to someone. I cursed up a storm as a kid. Trying to be a better person now, to fix what I’ve done.”

 

“Who’d you make that promise to?” Piper asked, genuinely curious. She flipped the page, waiting for MacCready’s response with anticipation bubbling behind her fingers. 

 

“I’ll... get there.” Whatever MacCready wasn’t telling her was obviously important to the story, so she didn’t push him.  _ No need to rush,  _ she reminded herself,  _ the readers love a good hook, and I do too. _

 

“Where was I?... Oh, yeah. I was a little jerk of a kid, but being a jerk while living with a bunch of other kids got you respect. When I was ten, I became mayor after this girl named Princess served for five minutes. Well, her name wasn’t  _ really _ Princess, but once she convinced everyone to make her mayor, the find thing she did was demand to have the title changed to Princess. So me, being a little fu-- ek,  _ jerk _ of a kid, I punched her in the nose. Pretty sure I broke it, because Princess was bleeding all over the place.”

 

Piper laughed at the mental image of that, her pen moving lighting-fast across the page. “God, she sounded like a brat.”

 

“She was!” MacCready exclaimed, and the pair laughed together. “She was such a little brat. No one liked her, I have no idea how she convinced everyone to make her mayor. And me, being this tiny, belligerent little kid, of course took a swing at her. I said ‘the children of Lamplight need a leader, not a princess’ — or something like that — and then I became mayor. I was the mayor until I left at sixteen.”

 

“Why did you leave?” She asked, flipping to the next page in her notebook. She already knew she had a great story coming along; her readers would eat up all of these mental images MacCready was painting for her.

 

“Because they didn’t have dental.” He deadpanned. Piper laughed and MacCready followed suite, hiding his open mouth behind his hand. She knew his teeth were crooked and odd and that some were missing, but it didn’t really bother Piper. Toothbrushes were a rarity on their own, and Piper couldn’t imagine the lack of hygiene that came with a bunch of kids living together with no adults. She couldn’t blame him for that. 

 

“No, really.” She shot back, taking a sip of her drink.

 

“We had to. We didn’t trust adults in Little Lamplight. We called them ‘mungos’. I think it all stemmed back to that damn vault that was in one of the caves.” MacCready shook his head, then took a sip of his whiskey. “You were an adult when you turned sixteen, so you had to leave when you were sixteen. Most kids headed to this place called Big Town; we were told a ‘good life’ awaited us there once we left Little Lamplight.” He put his drink down to emphasize his words with air quotations, his cigarette smoking in between his fingers. “In reality, the place was a dump. There were always slavers and Supermutants, kidnapping people and destroying things. I barely lasted a month there before I left. 

 

“So I traveled, but it’s hard to travel when you have no caps. So I became a gun for hire. Always been good with a sniper rifle, and I have little to no moral conscious, so.” He had picked his glass back up as he spoke, and finished what was left in there. Piper could tell he was hesitating with continuing his story, so they sat there in silence, finishing their cigarettes. They both moved to put their ends out, their fingers brushing as they did so. Piper and MacCready excused themselves at the same time, and Piper silently giggled at their synchronization. 

 

He offered her another cigarette almost immediately, and she took him up on the offer. They were the two heaviest smokers in Sanctuary (Danse often referred to them as “human incinerators”, and Piper would just roll her eyes), and Piper was sure MacCready had his reasons for it, just like she did. When they lit their cigarettes in the dying flame of MacCready’s lighter, the brims of their caps bumped against each other.

 

Piper and MacCready’s eyes met, hazel and blue locked on each other. The longer Piper stared into MacCready’s bright blue eyes, the deeper she could feel herself drowning in them. They were mesmerizing, to say the least. Her eyes barely left his, only to flicker down and study the rest of his face. He wasn’t unattractive by any means; if anything, he was the exact opposite. His cheekbones rode high on his face, offsetting his bushy, light-colored brows. His nose was thick, but it fit the shape of his face, and it was like an arrow shooting down to pointed, soft-looking lips that had a cigarette dangling precariously from their bottom lip. Facial hair surrounded them, well-groomed and kept short. There was stubble on his cheeks, light enough that it almost wasn’t visible, that echoed the remnants of a beard long-shaved off. 

 

She could feel his eyes scanning her face, as her eyes had done moments ago, and her freckled cheeks flushed a deep shade of pink. The light from the lighter had burnt out, and neither one of them had any excuses for staying this close to one another for so long. Piper took a deep breath, ready to say something sarcastic and quippy to break the tension, but she felt smoke from her forgotten cigarette fill her lungs. She pulled away quickly, blowing out the smoke with an awkward cough.

 

_ Piper, what the fuck was that?  _ She thought to herself, taking a long drag of her cigarette to try and calm her nerves.  _ You’re not drunk, you’re barely even buzzed. What the fuck are you doing? Stop it!  _

 

Piper shook her head, then turned back to her notebook, trying to forget just how  _ long  _ the two of them had looked at each other. Or what had even happened that made them do… whatever  _ that _ was. She took a moment to glance over at MacCready, whose cheeks looked just as warm as her own.  _ So I wasn’t the only one who noticed that was weird. _

 

“So, uh,” she started, and she heard MacCready rustle on the side of the bed at her voice. “What happened next?”

 

“I, uh, well… I traveled. A lot. Ran with some bad crowds and some good crowds.” MacCready was talking fast, either trying to forget what just happened or end this interview fast.  _ Probably both. _

 

“When I was eighteen, I met Lucy.” The speed of his voice hit the brakes at the mention of her name, and MacCready sighed. Any tension that had built up on his end dispelled with that sigh, and he took a long drag off of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out of his nose again. “And I lied to her. I told her I was a soldier, but I was a merc. I fell for her the minute I met her. She was the best damn thing that ever happened to me, and— and…”

 

MacCready’s fists clenched, and Piper made a noise of concern. “Mac… RJ. Hey.” She said, her voice soft. Her free hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it to try and comfort him. “If you want, we can take a break. What I have now is more than enough to make a great story.”

 

“She… she fell for me too.” He pushed through whatever pain there was, but Piper kept her hand on his shoulder. Whatever MacCready was about to tell her, it didn’t need to be written down. “We got married after a year, and then a few months later she told me she was pregnant.”

 

_ He has a kid? Color me surprised. _

 

“I know. He’s almost three now,” he said, as if he could read Piper’s mind. “His name is Duncan. Right before he was born, I almost came clean to Lucy, about work, but I never did. I couldn’t bare to tell her, you know? She had this image of me that I didn’t want to ruin, especially right before the baby came.” 

 

Piper moved to sit next to MacCready, the springs of the mattress squeaking as she settled and  crossed her legs. Her hand moved from MacCready’s shoulder to her lap, and she let him continue the interview at his behest. His cigarette had been forgotten in the ashtray when he went to ash it last, and Piper put hers next to it, the tip still burning.

 

“Duncan is… he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He’s so smart, and looks just like his mom. He can read a lot, and he talks up a storm. I’m here with Nora because of him… because he’s sick. He has some illness, something no one has ever seen. I’m trying to find the cure, because I don’t want to let Lucy down again.” He was rambling, words falling out of his mouth as he spoke, and Piper could tell he was trying to avoid some big detail in his story.

 

“... Again?” Piper asked quietly. At her question, MacCready scrubbed his face with his hands for a moment, then glanced at Piper with a hard look behind his eyes.

 

“I… I don’t have to answer that, right?”

 

Piper shook her head no.

 

“Oh… okay.” Whatever he wasn’t telling her, it obviously shook him up. When his hands went to his sides, they were balled into fists, his nails deep enough to turn his fingers white. He was shaking, his jaw clenched, and his eyes looked distant as his chest rose and fell rapidly. MacCready’s body may have been there, but his mind wasn’t, and that scared Piper. She had seen this happen before to other people, and she did the first thing that came to mind.

 

Piper wrapped her arms MacCready and pulled him into a tight hug, not speaking or moving beyond that. It took a moment for him to respond, as if he hasn’t been hugged in a while, but soon his arms were wrapping around her waist. He held her tight, and Piper promised herself she wouldn’t let go until he calmed down, no matter how long it took. 

 

They sat like that for who-knows-how-long: their faces buried into each other’s shoulders, arms locked around the other person. Piper could feel MacCready’s heartbeat thumping against her chest; at first, it was fast and erratic, but over time, it slowed down to a normal pace. His breathing was still shallow, but it wasn’t as rapid as before.

 

He smelt like smoke and the oak trees that lined Sanctuary, familiar scents that soothed Piper. MacCready held her tight, and she matched the strength of his hold as best she could. In situations like this, she had learned, sometimes all the other person needed was a hug. Compassion was rare in the Commonwealth, but that didn’t mean it had to be nonexistent. Her arms were around his neck, and her thumbs rubbed small circles near his hairline in an attempt to soothe him.

 

MacCready was the one to pull away, except Piper didn’t fully slip out of his arms. He held her, not against her will in any way; honestly, she wanted to be there in his arms. It felt nice to be held, to feel the touch of another. It had been too long.

 

She moved her hands to rest on his chest, and she could feel tags under her hands, beneath the layers of shirts he wore. The confused look on her face was noticed by MacCready, and he removed one hand from Piper’s lower back long enough to tug out the dog tags from under his shirt. He left the two metal tags rest out in the open as he returned his hand back to where it was. When he spoke, his voice was low and quiet. 

 

“Standard issue for the Gunners. I joined after Lucy… I joined for Duncan. To help find a cure for his illness. But what the Gunners do, it’s not worth whatever caps I got at the end of the day. At first, it was fun; a good distraction with all the drugs and booze I could handle. But after a while… I snapped one day, and realized I couldn’t live like that any more. So I abandoned my post one night and never looked back. I keep the dog tags as a reminder of what I did. And what I still have to do…

 

“If you ever meet two Gunners named Winlock and Barnes, tell them MacCready said they can burn in hell, then place a few rounds between their eyes.” He chuckled, but it was steely and sharp, with no hint of a smile present.

 

“I’ll make sure to do that. Top of my checklist.” Piper teased MacCready ever so gently, grinning when a small smile broke out on MacCready’s face. All she wanted was to see him smile, to let him know he was safe with her.

 

“You always know just what to say, don’t you angel?” 

 

That nickname made Piper flush, and she did the first thing she could think of to hide the blush: bury her face in MacCready’s chest. He laughed at her move, and his laugh sounded like bells, resonating in his chest and against her face as she hid. Her hat was pushed off of her head as she ducked down, and when she pulled away (after the burning in her cheeks subsided) she saw MacCready had her newspaper cap in his hand. He put it back on her head and pulled it down tight, just how she liked it. 

 

“Sometimes,” She grumbled, looking away from MacCready with embarrassment written all over her face. She couldn’t  _ believe  _ what was happening! But here she was. In his arms. Red as a tato.  _ Falling for him.  _

 

And she thought  _ she  _ was the charming one.

 

Even though he was suave, Piper knew MacCready couldn’t deny the fact that his cheeks were as red as hers. Their eyes met again, blue on hazel, and they moved closer towards one another. Awkward as ever, Piper’s mind blanked, and she blurted out the first thing that came to mind: a question that had been burning a hole in her chest ever since MacCready’s evasiveness during their interview began.

 

“Did Lucy die?” 

 

MacCready’s face dropped as the question hung in the stale air, and he looked away from Piper when he answered. His hands balled into the leather of her jacket, pulling her closer against him as he struggled to respond. He stopped and started a few times, before finally speaking.

 

“I… She… yes. But I don’t want to talk about it. Please, don’t make me talk about it.”

 

He sounded like he was begging, with a mist in his eyes as he finally looked back at Piper. She nodded, then moved her arms so she was hugging MacCready again. It was a silent apology for the intrusive question; she felt terrible about asking it, but she was nervous and it slipped out. She kicked herself internally, and tightened her grip around his neck.

 

This time, she rested her head on his chest, and she could feel him rest his head on top of hers. She hoped that this was him accepting her apology. Their breathing synced up as silence filled the room, swirling around their intertwined bodies. They stayed like that for a while, long enough that the only reason the hug broke was because both of them had become a bit stiff. 

 

When they pulled away, Piper didn’t leave MacCready’s arms. His grip was just as tight as before, but his fingers had let go of the red-leather material of her jacket. Her arms moved to rest over his shoulders, fingers locking lazily behind his head. Their eyes met, and it felt like there were magnets pulling them closer together. Her chest brushed his, and she shook her head with a small laugh. This was… ridiculous. She honestly couldn’t believe this was happening. 

 

“Do all of your interviews go like this?” MacCready teased quietly, and Piper figured he was probably just as shocked as she was. His cheeks were pink, bringing out freckles that were usually hidden by his complexion. 

 

She replied with a “not usually, no,” her voice softer than she intended before she wet her bottom lip with her tongue. She noticed how MacCready’s eyes traced down to her lips when she did that, an eyebrow cocked ever so simply, and a flush rushed to her cheeks.

 

Piper had only been on three dates in her life, and one of them had ended in an assassination attempt (men tried to poison her for what she wrote far too often, she concluded). The other was when she was eight and that… ended in an attempted poisoning, this time by a projectile baby radscorpion thrown by her date.  _ Why am I always almost getting poisoned? _ If MacCready had poisoned her, she’d be able to tell by now; he hadn't, so this date was going better than most.

 

_ Wait, a  _ **_date_ ** ?

 

The very thought made her heart jump in her chest, and MacCready must have felt it against him because his lips turned upwards. “What are you thinking about?” He asked, fingers tapping ever so slowly on the small of her back. Each tap made her heart beat a little bit faster, and she was afraid she was going to have a heart attack if this kept up. “... Angel?”

 

Their foreheads were pressed together now, the brims of their hats tipping up at a comical angle. Piper stifled a chuckle, and pulled a hand away from where it was resting. She took her press cap off and placed it on the nightstand, then ran her fingers through her hair. 

 

“Sorry, hat hair,” she apologized, watching as MacCready took off his military cap and dropped it on the ground. “Hey, don’t worry.” He replied, pointing to his mess of light brown hair. “Happens to everyone.”

 

A smile tugged at the corners of Piper’s lips, and she ran a hand through his messy hair in an attempt to pat it down. His hair was softer than she anticipated, and thick under her hand. MacCready hummed as she ran her fingers through it again, and she gave a quick scratch of her fingers to the nape of his neck. He let out a little noise of enjoyment, which made her stomach flutter. Her hands went back to where they started, but not as loose as before. In their movement, they must have leaned in further, because now their lips were hovering barely an inch apart.

 

“You may be a good journalist, but you’re a terrible interviewee, because you never answered my question,” MacCready teased. As he spoke, his facial hair brushed against her chin, and she swore she could feel his lips ghost across hers. Maybe she was imagining it; she hoped for her sanity she was. “What are you thinking about?”

 

Piper had only kissed four people in her life. Two were the aforementioned poisoners (before the poisoning took place), one was Magnolia at The Third Rail after they had both had too much to drink (which Piper didn’t mind), and one was Franky. 

 

Franky Boglivardi was a fast-talking, hard-selling trader who was rough around the edges, and not in a good way. His caravan had passed through Diamond City one day, and they caught each other’s eyes. They chatted at the market while his colleague traded goods. He was tall, dark-haired, with a greasy smile and thick arms that mesmerized her. That chatting led to flirting, and then he was asking her on a date. Hours later they were at the Dugout Inn, laughing and taking shots, and then he grabbed her face and kissed her out of nowhere, shoving his tongue down her throat. He tasted like cheap Russian moonshine and metallic gunpowder, and the taste stayed in Piper’s mouth for nearly a week after that kiss. 

 

“H...How every date I’ve ever been on has ended with me almost dead” she admitted finally, MacCready’s piercing blue eyes studying her face as she whispered her truths to him. “And how I’ve only been kissed four times.”

 

MacCready’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her admission, and he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Someone as beautiful and as smart as you should be treated better than that.”

 

“... Y-Y-You think I’m beautiful?” Piper was flabbergasted by his words, stuttering as she spoke. MacCready nodded as best he could in their position, and when their lips brushed Piper nearly jumped a foot in his arms. He noticed, and his voice dropped down to barely a murmur.

 

“Of course I do; why do you think I call you angel?” 

 

She froze. For the first time in her life, her mind was blank, and there was nothing rushing to her mind to blurt out like before. “I—I…”

 

“Piper, I know I’m not much, but can I kiss you?” 

 

Piper couldn’t believe what was happening. Almost an hour ago, she was lamenting her solitariness at the bar, and now here she was, in MacCready’s arms? Ready to kiss him? Not out of loneliness, but because she actually  _ wanted to _ ?

 

She nodded at his request, her eyes ever so slowly slipping shut. She couldn’t bare to watch,  because she was afraid her heart might explode.

 

A hand left her back and moved to curve under her chin, tipping her head upwards into a better angle. Piper could feel his lips brush against hers once, then again, as if he was teasing her before giving her what she wanted. She barely had time to pout before she finally had his lips pressed against hers.

 

The blankness in her mind dissipated the second their lips touched; it was like an explosion of color bloomed in her mind. Their lips moved soft and slow against the others’, learning how each other’s mouths felt. Piper tilted her head and MacCready did the same, the kiss deepening with the movement. 

 

MacCready was the one to break the kiss; if it was up to Piper, she would have let it last longer. But they were both out of breath, with a dusting of red on their cheeks. Piper’s face burned, and she realized both her and MacCready were panting as they looked at each other through blown eyes. The early evening light that shone through the window framed MacCready’s head and made him look like a saint. 

 

“For someone who’s only been kissed now a total of five times, you are one incredible kisser,” he admitted, their lips brushing with every word.

 

Piper leaned in and pecked his lips with a teasing smile. “Six times.” 

 

“Ooh, so it’s like that?” MacCready mused with a smirk. Piper had no time to react as MacCready’s hands cupped her face and pulled her into a kiss. There was a fire behind his lips as he kissed her, and she matched it as best she could. This kiss was so unlike the last two they had shared: it was hot and wet, with their lips moving roughly against each other’s. 

 

MacCready’s lips parted and she could feel his tongue press against her bottom lip. Piper let out a little  _ yelp _ at the feeling and pulled away, her face feeling cold and her eyes wide. This was all getting way too familiar: it was moving too fast, way too fast. She  _ wanted  _ it this time, but not like this. Her heart was pounding, and her head spun as she forced herself to focus on MacCready.

 

“Hey, hey hey hey, Piper. Hey.” MacCready’s thumbs brushed against Piper’s cheeks, “What’s wrong? Talk to me. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

 

“I… What are we  _ doing? _ ” Piper replied, an espasterated and shaky tone to her voice as she looked at MacCready. Everything was hitting her all at once, and she bit down on her bottom lip, worrying the skin.

 

“Do you want to stop?” As MacCready spoke, he moved his hands from Piper’s face to give her some space. But her gloved hands flew up and held him in place, and she sighed as she felt his calloused fingers press into her freckled skin. It brought her back down to Earth: she wasn’t at Dugout Inn, this wasn’t Franky. MacCready would never be him, she had to tell herself that. She took a deep breath in, held it for a moment, then exhaled. She could feel herself center, and she finally answered his question with a shake of her head.

 

“Absolutely not. I just. I wasn’t ready for that, is all. Wasn’t expecting it, ya know?” She pulled her confidence out, and felt back to her old self as she spoke. MacCready laughed at her words, then he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

 

“Take it slow. I hear you.”

 

This time, MacCready leaned in slow enough to give Piper time to prepare. Their lips pressed against each other’s softly, and his thumb stroked her cheek. She could taste the oaky flavor of the whiskey on her lips, stinging from when MacCready’s tongue touched them. However, his lips brushing against hers helped soothe the sting, and she sighed against him.

 

MacCready’s hand moved from her cheek to the base of her neck, cupping it for support as they tilted their heads. His hand was mostly resting on her striped scarf, and Piper didn’t even break their kiss to tug it off and toss it on the ground. 

 

MacCready was the one to break their kiss, and he tipped his head down so his lips could rest on her neck. Soft kisses were pressed down her tanned skin, and she shivered and cursed under her breath. Piper buried a hand in MacCready’s hair, whimpering as lingering kisses burned into her skin. She didn’t even realize a whimper had left her lips until she heard a teasing chuckle escape MacCready. “So, you like that? Good to know.”

 

“Fuck you,” she whispered, tugging hard on his hair. Piper heard him hiss when she did that, and a bit of pride rushed in her chest. Before she could blink, MacCready was snapping his head up and his lips were back against hers, this time with some more fire behind them.

 

Even though they said they would go slow, when MacCready’s tongue pressed against Piper’s bottom lip after a few more minutes of kissing, she only hesitated for a moment before parting her plush lips. His tongue slipped inside her mouth, pressing flat against her tongue before running across it. Piper couldn’t help the soft moan that left her at the feeling, or the little whimper when MacCready pulled his tongue back. She wasn’t sure what made someone a good kisser or not, but MacCready was most certainly a  _ very  _ good kisser by her standards.

 

The hand that cupped her neck buried in her hair, and after her whimper MacCready gave her hair a hard  _ yank.  _ Piper’s head fell back, breaking the kiss and exposing her neck once more to MacCready. He kissed up and down her freckled skin with a fervor behind his actions, and Piper was panting (it took her a moment to realize she was even  _ doing it _ ; at first, she thought it was just background noise). 

 

A tongue pressed flat against a patch of skin and began to work it over, and Piper moaned for MacCready. He growled against her skin, an actual  _ growl  _ that sent shivers through Piper’s body.  _ Who knew he was like this?.... fuck.  _ When his teeth bit down on the raw patch of skin, she whined and clawed at his back, moaning his name again.

 

MacCready pulled away, his hair falling in his eyes and a red color to his cheeks. His bright blue eyes were wild, raw, hungry for more; his lips were parted and flushed, and looked a bit swollen from their heavy kissing. Piper felt her breath catch in her (now bruised) throat and she squirmed because the room felt like it was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. She fumbled with taking her gloves off as they both caught their breaths, her pens falling to the floor as she quickly unwrapped the twine that held them against her gloves. 

 

Piper’s red leather jacket was next, and MacCready’s helped her with the belt and the buttons, while she tugged off his scarf, ammo belts, binoculars, and pack. When her jacket was off, MacCready took off the suspender draped over his shoulder and the belt it was connected to, and his ripped duster followed suite. Their outer clothes and shoes tumbled to the floor, and Piper sat there in a thick white tank top, worn black jeans, and thick socks, looking at MacCready in his layers of shirts, green pants, and shiny silver dog tags dancing as they hung from his neck.

 

It only took a shared look between them before they jumped, their lips locking back together. Piper let her lips part almost immediately, and MacCready’s tongue slid against her own with ease. The kiss was hard and needy: they were both starved for the touch and kiss of another. The bruise MacCready left on her neck ached when his fingers brushed against it as they traced up her skin, eventually settling on her cheek to cup it. It was a good ache, though, one that made her squirm on the mattress.

 

Their kiss broke ever so briefly, partially so they could regain their breath and so MacCready could ask: “Can we move?” Piper nodded, and then his hands were on her waist, lifting her into a straddling position over his lap. Her knees bent on either side of his waist, pressing firmly into the mattress under them. MacCready gazed up at her with a look of what Piper could only describe as pure lust _ ,  _ and it made her cheeks go red. No one had ever looked at her like that, and it had her heart racing.

 

Her hands went to the back of his neck, fingers curling in his hair. He hummed at the feeling, Piper couldn’t help but smile… Until she felt a certain  _ situation  _ growing underneath her. Her eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed, and it took a moment for MacCready to realize just  _ why  _ she was making that face. His cheeks went crimson at the realization, and his hands flew up to hide his face.

 

“Sorry, it’s, uh, it’s been a while.” He admitted, a sheepish look on his face when Piper pried his hands away. 

 

Piper had only had sex once in her life, and it went nothing like this. It didn’t start like this, and if the evening continued, she hoped it wouldn’t end like it had between her and Franky. 

 

“Once.” She admitted after a moment, guiding MacCready’s hands to her waist.

 

It took him a moment, then: “Only once?”

 

She nodded, looking away from MacCready and chewing on her bottom lip. The story spilled out after a moment, memories rushing back as she spoke.

 

“His name was Franky Boglivardi. He was a caravan worker, and he was an ass. Real greasy, nasty son of a bitch. He… we met up at The Dugout Inn after the sunset, after talking in the market earlier that day. Probably not my wisest decision, but... We drank too much and after a few too many shots he stuck his tongue down my throat and I was so wasted I couldn’t push him away. 

 

“Vadim kicked us out after a while, then he took me out back behind the bar. I wanted to go back to my place, make it proper, you know? But instead I learned what a dumpster felt like against my face, and I heard my pants rip. After about two minutes of bad sex, he finished and left me there with my pants around my ankles. I never… I never saw him again.” Piper tried to keep her tone nonchalant as she recounted one of the worst nights of her life, but she couldn’t help the way her voice caught on the end of her final sentence. MacCready’s hands were on her cheeks, rubbing them with his thumbs as she held back a small sniffle. 

 

“Piper,  _ Piper,  _ look at me,” he whispered with a firm, yet caring tone. “If you want to stop—“

 

“No! No. I… this is better,” Piper admitted, and that sniffle was gone from her mind, replaced with a shy smile. “I want  _ this,  _ you know? If, if you do, of course. God, is it warm in here?”

 

MacCready laughed, then pulled her in for a short and sweet kiss. “Whatever you want, you get.” He spoke against her lips, and Piper felt herself melt against him.

 

“I want you,” she immediately replied, and it almost didn’t feel like it was her saying that. She certainly didn’t think about it before it left her mouth, nor the implications it might have had.

 

MacCready made a small noise at her words, and pulled back from her lips. His hands went back to her hips, and she flushed at what she had just said.

 

“Was that too much? I’m sorry,” she apologized softly, a bashful look on her face. “I’m really sorry, I ca—“

 

MacCready cut her off. “I’m, fu— _ frick _ , Piper. I want you too.” 

 

Piper squeaked at his confession, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. 

 

“Too much?”

 

Piper quickly replied with an “absolutely fuckin’  _ not, _ ” and then her lips crashed back against MacCready’s. The kiss was hard and messy, with her fingers burying in his hair and his fingers digging into her shapely hips. Lust buzzed around them, and when MacCready bit down on Piper’s bottom lip she moaned his first name and gave a hard tug to his hair.

 

There were no worries or cares on her mind as they kissed: it was just them, in their own little bubble, where none of the issues from the rest of the world could bother them. She could feel his hands running over her back and hips, brushing over sensitive spots that make her whimper. With each whimper her fingers tugged at his hair, and he groaned into her mouth.

 

She could feel him hard under her as the kisses grew deeper, and, testing her boundaries, Piper shifted her hips and ground down on his clothed cock as best she knew how. She had only heard descriptions from Cait, and she hoped she did it right.

 

“God,  _ Piper _ . Do that again. Sh—hell.” 

 

_ Ding ding ding, we have a winner. _

 

MacCready had broken their kiss to moan her name, and Piper could feel herself get wet at how sensually it rolled off his tongue. A trail of spit connected their lips, and Piper never thought that could look so attractive. She did as asked, grinding her hips down on MacCready’s cock and swirling them in a circle. This time, the movement felt more natural, and she giggled as she dragged out the motion. 

 

His eyes were full of bliss, the bright blue barely visible behind blown-out pupils. Piper was sure she wasn’t in better shape: between the long kisses they had been sharing and the ever-present wetness between her legs, she was sure she looked like a mess. When she giggled, MacCready rolled his hips upwards, meeting her gyration. Her giggle fell into a moan, and with his hands on her hips, she wasn’t able to pull away. That move was like heaven, and the dominance of it made her head spin. She was barely able to finish her grind, but MacCready’s hands guided her through it, as if he wanted her to feel every inch of their motions.

 

“You alright, angel?” MacCready asked, a smirk in his tone once he let her hips rest. Piper smacked him on the chest in retaliation, and he laughed. A grumbled “asshole” left Piper’s lips, and then she snapped her hips forward, breaking his grip momentarily. He gasped, tipping his head back just far enough for Piper to dip her head down.

 

The fresh bruise on her neck ached with pleasure, and she decided that a bit of revenge was in store. She mimicked his motions as she kissed and pressed her tongue against the skin, and when she found a pulsing vein, she bit down on it and worked the skin over. MacCready’s fingers tightened hard enough on her hips to leave bruises that would match the one on their necks. He tasted sweet, something Piper didn’t expect, and she hummed against his neck.

 

MacCready moaned her name and it sounded like heaven, dripping off his tongue wrapped in pure sex. Piper couldn’t help the shudder that ran through her body, and she snapped her hips again as she pulled away. A sufficient, bright blue bruise was blossoming on MacCready’s neck, and Piper giggled. “I’m stealing your scarf,” he teased, pressing two fingers against the bruise and wincing. 

 

His hand moved to the back of her head, and he pulled Piper in for a soft kiss. Once it broke, Piper rested her forehead on his, and through lidded eyes and heavy lashes their gazes met. MacCready looked incredibly spaced out, his blue eyes locked on her hazel eyes, and she figured he was in as much disbelief that this was happening as she was.

 

Piper snapped her hips again, her fingers going back to being buried deep in MacCready’s sandy hair. This started a rhythm, guided by MacCready’s hands on her hips, with the occasional roll from his hips. Piper knew that this was dry-humping, and the friction from their pants gave each movement a delicious burn that Piper soaked in. A breathy moan of “Mac…” left her mouth, and she tipped her head back and let MacCready take control of the motions, her hands falling slack around the back of his neck.

 

His mouth attacked her neck, not to bruise, but to lavish with kisses as he moved them in sync. Each kiss lingered on her skin, making Piper sigh and squirm at the sensations.

 

“P-please,” She stuttered, the beg caught off-guard by another long kiss to her neck. MacCready pulled away, and Piper tilted her head back down so they could make eye contact. She knew what she wanted, and she knew that if they kept this up she may not be able to last much longer.

 

“Please  _ what? _ ”

 

“Ah… Mac… Don’t make me say it.” She whimpered quietly, color rushing to her cheeks. His thumb ran across her lower lip, and she tentatively pressed a kiss to the pad of it, hoping that would get her out of answering the question they both knew the answer to. “You know what I mean.”

 

“Maybe I  _ don’t  _ know what you mean.” He teased and tipped his head to the side ever so slightly, looking like a mischievous and lost puppy dog.  _ Damn those bright blue eyes _ . He rolled his hips without warning and Piper swore she saw stars. Her underwear was soaked by now, and if she was to judge by how MacCready felt against her, she would say he was pretty far-gone, too.

 

“Please… I want you.” She finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. MacCready’s lips turned upwards into a smile, and he guided her in for a soft kiss.

 

“Anything for you, angel. I want to treat you right. I want you to know how special you are, and see what you deserve from someone. I’m not… I’m not a lot, but I want to  _ try  _ and make you see just how much you mean. How important you are.”

 

Piper’s face burned at his words, and all she could do was let out a little, helpless whimper. “It’s, uh,  _ definitely  _ warm in here, isn’t it?” She whispered, her head spinning at what MacCready said. He laughed at her words, and then he took her hands and led them to the bottom hem of his shirts. 

 

“Then let's get rid of some layers, yeah?”

 

MacCready had two shirts on, a green button down and white tank, and both of them came off in one fell swoop from Piper’s pull. His dog tags remained on and hung loosely around his neck, accentuating how lean MacCready was. He wasn’t skinny or underweight by any means: Piper could see the hints of muscle in his physique, probably earned from years of hard labor combined with being such a skilled sniper. A few scars adorned his chest, light yet raised from the skin (some looked like bullet holes, and she didn’t want to think about the situations that caused those). Reaching out, she brushed her fingers down his chest, feeling the warmth of his skin under them.

 

“I know, I don’t look like Danse,” he teased sarcastically, his hand moving to cover Piper’s when she rested it near his heart.

 

“Thank god.” She could feel it thumping under her palm as she replied, speeding up when their eyes met. It was cheesy and romantic, but Piper felt her heart soar in her chest at his reaction. She pulled her hand away and kissed him, then felt fingers brushing at the hem of her tank top.

 

“May I?” He asked against her lips, and she nodded. They both leaned away and Piper raised her arms, letting MacCready peel the ribbed white tank off of her.

 

Outside the sun had begun to fall, and a cool breeze fluttered through MacCready’s thick curtains. She shivered as it blew through, right as MacCready dropped her shirt on the ground.

 

Piper had always felt like her body was nothing to bat an eye at: her chest was smaller than most and barely filled out the cream colored bra she wore. Yes, she was in shape from constantly being on the move, but not defined like Cait or as thin as most other women were. She had curves and soft spots, but when MacCready looked at her, those insecurities began to slowly melt away.

 

There was a pink tint to his cheeks as he gazed at her, and a quiet “ _ wow, _ ” escaped him. No one had ever looked at her like that before, and she could feel the tips of her ears burning as a result. She was going to cross her arms over her chest, but MacCready cut her off by tightening his arms around her.

 

“Never thought I’d be lucky enough to hold a woman as beautiful as you in my arms.”

 

Piper looked away, too bashful to meet his eyes. “You’re just saying that,” she whispered. A kiss was pressed to her warm cheek and Piper could feel her face heat up even more.

 

“Now why would I lie to the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen?” He whispered, and then Piper felt his lips press against her neck. Soft kisses lined her sharp jawline, until he got to her chin. MacCready’s lips met hers and Piper sighed against them. When it broke, MacCready leaned back, and there was a certain seriousness to his face. “Do you want to, you know… I don’t want to push it and make you uncomfortable.” He spoke softly, so unlike before. It showed he cared, and Piper looked at him with wide eyes.

 

“I’ve never been asked that,” she admitted after a brief moment of silence. “I… yes, I do. As long as you want to, I mean.”

 

MacCready nodded and smiled, and he pressed a short kiss to Piper’s lips in response. “Of course I do, angel. Not to sound creepy or anything, but I have for a while. Just never knew how to ask, because, you know, I’m me.”

 

Piper giggled at that, and that giggled melted into a moan as MacCready tipped his head down and peppered kisses across Piper’s neck. She was going to reply, tell him that he was so much more than he realized. Piper had had a crush on him once or twice, things that blossom between friends. An odd touch, a lingering gaze: things that make a girl’s heart rush when she’s lonely. Had she imagined this before? Sure. But now that it was actually  _ happening?  _ She couldn’t believe it.

 

MacCready began to work another bruise on her neck, and that pulled Piper out of her thoughts with a hard gasp. She moaned his name and clawed at his back, leaving angry red marks down his skin. She was going to apologize, but his lips were back on hers and she moaned into his mouth instead.

 

His hands ran up her back, fingers resting on the hooks of her bra. MacCready pulled just far enough away to ask “Can I?”. Piper blushed, a soft shiver running down her spine. This was the  _ next step,  _ and for the first time, Piper felt ready for it.

  
  


“Yeah, do you nee—“ before Piper could offer assistance, she felt the hooks pop open under MacCready’s nimble fingers.  _ He really is fast with his fingers.  _ Immediately after that thought, Piper’s eyes went wide and she flushed, realizing just what  _ else  _ MacCready could put those nimble fingers to use for.

 

Her bra was unceremoniously dropped on the floor, and then MacCready leaned back and looked down, his hands back on her waist. “Damn,” he mumbled with a smile, his bright blue eyes wide. When they met hers, she let out a quiet and awkward giggle. “Damn?”

 

“Damn.”

 

She laughed, tossing her head back. Piper felt comfortable around MacCready, even exposed like this to him. Before all of this, they had been friendly and close enough that she considered him a friend. Even though they were vastly different people, they shared some similarities that brought them together as friends.

 

“Want to lay back for me, angel?”

 

MacCready’s words broke through her thoughts, and she nodded. “Of course.” She moved from straddling his waist to laying on the bed, her hair splaying out behind her on the small pillow resting on the mattress. She giggled in an awkward anticipation, and MacCready slid between her legs and silenced her giggles with a kiss. He gave her breast a small squeeze, and Piper sighed against his lips at the feeling. She had touched herself like this before, teased herself to dirty thoughts alone in her bedroom, but the feeling of another person’s hands on her was so much different than what she was used to. 

 

His hand teased her breast, rolling her tit between his thumb and forefinger, and Piper whimpered underneath MacCready. She could tell she was soaked through her underwear, and Piper was in  _ desperate  _ to get MacCready to fuck her. She squirmed, and MacCready clicked his tongue in response.

 

“Nuh-uh. We do this right, okay?” His tone was commanding, yet sweet; Piper had never heard this come from him. She nodded and he leaned down, taking the tit he had been playing with into his mouth. He teased it with his tongue, flicking it ever so gently while keeping his eyes locked on hers. Piper gasped at the feeling, and a hand flew up to cover her mouth. MacCready pulled away to laugh, and his bottom lip brushed against her tit when he spoke. “You are… so gorgeous. You know that? Even though you’re sensitive as hell.”

 

He winked at her and Piper thought she would melt. She hated how suave MacCready could be sometimes.  _ How dare he, honestly.  _ He didn’t miss a beat once he went back to what he was doing; he gently sucked on her tit while his hand gave some much-needed attention to her other breast. Her hands went to his head, digging in his hair and scratching at his scalp. MacCready pulled away and let out a small growl, and then he looked up at Piper with an animalistic glaze over his bright blue eyes.

 

Piper whimpered, and then his lips were on hers. The kiss was hungry and fast, with one of his hands cradling the back of her head while the other played with the breast that was just in his mouth. Piper’s head was spinning from MacCready, and she dug her fingers into his hair and tugged hard. He groaned her name against her lips, breaking the kiss with a loud  _ pop.  _

 

“You keep frickin’ interrupting me, you tease,” MacCready chastised her with a smile, and Piper let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Do that again and I’ll have to tie you up or something.” The threat made Piper go red, and she squirmed, too embarrassed to reply.

 

A beat, then: “Oh, I’ll have to remember that for next time.”

 

_ Next time... _

 

Before Piper could really process his words and respond, MacCready had already dipped his head back back. Starting between her breasts, lust-laced kisses were pressed down Piper’s body, and his hands gently traced down her sides. She twitched and giggled as his fingers brushed over ticklish areas, and she could feel him smirk against her skin.

 

When his lips reached the waistline of her pants, MacCready looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow. “Do you want to, or can I?”

 

Piper’s hands went and covered her face, and she let out a loud groan. 

 

“Is everything ok?” She heard him ask, concern in his voice as he sat up.

 

“I’m just… I’m not used to this. Being nice with this stuff, and it coming from  _ you, _ no less _.” _ She blubbered through her hands, and she was thankful her palms muffled the heavy weight that had entered her tone. She wanted this  _ bad,  _ but she was so unused to the kindness MacCready was showing her. 

 

A lazy kiss was pressed to the skin between her belly button and waistline, and then she felt his hands on her hips. “Trust me, I never expected this either.” He said, his voice soft and with a smile to it. Piper peeked at him through her fingers and chuckled, and then she reached out and gently shoved his chest.

 

“Ass.” She teased.

 

“I know.” He replied with a smug, but light, tone. She reached out and grabbed him by his dog tags, then pulled him in for a quick kiss.

 

When the kiss broke, MacCready sat back and they both sighed, and his hands went to rest on her hips again. Crossing her arms over her breasts, Piper was bright red as she spoke. “You… you can take them off of me, if you want.”

 

His fingertips went from feeling like feathers to feeling like five pound weights as they rested on her hips. First her button was popped, and then the zipper was quickly pulled down. Fingers hooked in her belt loops, and then MacCready started to peel her jeans off of her. Piper lifted her legs and hips without being told, and MacCready leaned back to get the last of the fabric off of her. They were dropped on the ground with the rest of their clothes, a forgotten pile on the floor.

 

_ If anyone came in right now, we’d be screwed. _

 

She was wet: she knew it, and he knew it when he looked down at her. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” She sassed quietly, and he quickly responded with a “trust me, I want to. Don’t wanna forget this view.” Piper went red, and felt the top of her ears heat up as that wetness between her legs grew.

 

“Ass,” She cursed with red cheeks, but he barely even seemed to notice. He was more concerned with the small white bow on the front of her cream-colored panties, and teased it between two fingers with a lazy smile. MacCready’s fingers slid down the fabric, and then his thumb was resting against her clit. He rubbed small circles through the fabric, and looked up at her with a devious smile.

“Jesus Ch _ rist! _ ” She moaned, and her hands flew up to cover her mouth. It’s not like she had never felt a touch like this before, but it was so much different when it came from someone else’s hand instead of her own. When it was her, it was to satisfy an urge, get rid of a feeling. But now, with MacCready… it was because she wanted it. She  _ needed _ it. Needed  **him** .

 

“God, you’re cute,” MacCready said with a chuckle while pulling away, and his movement earned a little whine from Piper. “Don’t worry, I’m coming back!” He teased while getting up from the bed and unbuttoning his pants. MacCready kicked off his green pants, then kneeled back on the bed between Piper’s legs. 

 

“You are so goddamn pretty, you know that?” He asked, and Piper just buried her face in her hands. “I know I keep saying it, but I want you to know it.” MacCready was hard through his light blue boxer-briefs, and the thin fabric left little to the imagination. She felt fingers on her wrists, and then MacCready was lifting her hands to his mouth. Soft kisses were pressed to the palm of each hand, then to each finger. He let her wrists go, placing her hands at her side, and then his fingers went to her panties. The fabric, with white lace curving around the cream edges, bunched under his fingers, and he asked “can I?” Piper’s voice caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard before responding with a quiet “please.”

 

Ever so gently, MacCready tugged Piper’s panties off, slipping them over her thighs, around her ankles, and then finally he dropped them on the floor. Piper lowered her legs and closed her thighs as best she could, trying to keep a bit of modesty (even with MacCready between her legs). His hands went to her knees, slowly spreading her legs apart, and he hummed in approval at what he saw. 

 

“You and your humming,” she teased, but her voice wavered as she watched MacCready tip downwards, his hands moving towards her hips to angle them up. That smirk on his face didn’t help, either. She wasn’t sure what he was going to do, until she felt his scruff in between her legs, and a cool tongue press against her clit.

 

The first thing that came to Piper’s mind, she did; unfortunately, that thing was to scream. So, Piper let out a mangled scream, and MacCready shot his head up.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“What… what are you  _ doing _ ?” She asked out of breath. MacCready looked confused for a moment, but then a lightbulb in his brain turned on, and Piper watched a smirk form. He chuckled, then pressed a sweet kiss to Piper’s thigh. 

 

“Just… relax, okay? Don’t blow a fuse.” MacCready dipped back down as he spoke, and he had barely finished his sentence before his tongue was back where it had been before. Covering her mouth with her hand, Piper shuddered at the feeling of MacCready’s tongue working her clit over. It made her head spin, along with the room. She twitched and moaned on the mattress, her hair getting bundled up behind her as his tongue slid across her folds.

 

“Ah… shit, Robert…” The moan and curse slipped out from between her long fingers, and she couldn’t help but whine as MacCready worked her over. Piper couldn’t tell if MacCready was good at this or not, but they way his tongue made her feel was better than anything she could ever do to herself. His mouth encapsulated her inner lips, sucking on them as his tongue ran on the underside. They slipped from between his lips in a slow stroke, and then he lazily ran the tip of his tongue between them. Piper made the mistake of looking down as he did that, and their eyes met; he was taking such sweet pleasure in this, and Piper knew what she must look like. Between the bite marks that MacCready had left on her neck, the bruises on her hips from his hands, and the flushed and lidded mess her face was, Piper figured she fit the description of “ _ sexed up _ ” pretty well right about now.

 

His head sunk downwards, the flat of his tongue now pressed against her dripping sex. Piper’s thighs laced around MacCready’s neck, pressing into the sides of his head in a desperate attempt to hold him there. The feeling of him, slowly lapping at her hole, was maddening enough to push her over the edge into an orgasm in just a few more licks.  _ Don’t stop don’t stop don’tstoppleasedon’tstop. _ But before she could spill over, MacCready’s hands pulled Piper’s thighs apart, and he leaned away from her pussy. His lips and chin were glistening with her wetness, and the dew that was stuck to his goatee was wiped away on the back of his hand.

 

“You’re pretty eager, aren’t you?” He teased, sliding back up her body. “You’re mean,” she shot back, out of breath and panting. His hands traced up her sides, and then his lips were on hers. She didn’t realize she had missed the feeling of kissing him until their lips were pressed together for the first time in what seemed like ages. Piper could taste herself on his tongue, and she couldn’t help the way her hips bucked up; she rubbed her clit down the length of his clothed cock, and they shared a mangled moan into each other’s mouths at the sensation.

 

“Fff-- _ ahh. _ ” MacCready almost cursed, putting just enough space between them to speak. His voice was heavy and rough, and Piper figured they were probably thinking about the same thing right now (at least, she hoped so). “I’m not finished with you. Not yet.”

 

Piper simultaneously groaned and flushed at his words: on one hand, she wanted him to take her right now, but on the other hand… she wanted to see what else he could do.

 

MacCready moved back down Piper’s body and pressed a kiss to her clit when he was settled. Instead of continuing like before, he pulled back and looked up at her. “If it hurts or you don’t like it, tell me, alright?” He asked, and waited for her to nod before continuing. Piper’s heart was racing when she nodded, and she watched him through lidded eyes. 

 

Spitting on his hand, MacCready worked it over his fingers, then pressed the pad of his pointer finger against the entrance to her pussy. “We’ll take it slow,” he said, and then he began slowly began to push his finger inside of her. While her head spun, MacCready was focused on bottoming out his finger, and once he did so, he looked up and smiled at Piper. “You doing okay, angel?” He asked, and she squeaked out a “ _ yeah _ ”. 

 

Her mousey reply made MacCready chuckle, and he shook his head. “You’re too cute, Piper, I swear. Getting all flustered just at this, as if you haven’t imagined it before?” The smug look on MacCready’s face and lusty tone to his voice took Piper off-guard, and a loud “ _ ack! _ ” sound escaped her lips. 

 

“Too much?” He asked, worry in his voice that he had crossed a line.

 

“N— Jesus  _ Christ  _ Robert, it just took me off-guard. I didn’t expect that from you.” She responded, draping her arm over her eyes to hide her shame. 

 

“... So I’m guessing that that was a  _ yes _ to my question?” he responded, a purr to his voice. 

 

“... Bastard.” She grumbled, knowing full well that he was right, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of a confirmation.

 

Slipping a second finger inside of her, MacCready rested his head on Piper’s thigh, watching her while lazily thrusting his fingers. Soft kisses were pressed to her thighs, and Piper squirmed at the sensation; her thighs had always been incredibly sensitive, and this wasn’t helping. His fingers worked her open, spreading her out in preparation of what was to come. He was careful, however, not to tease anything sensitive. He wanted to make sure she would not finish early, just like when he was eating her out. Piper loved and hated the precautions he took because even though it meant she would be sated by him taking her, it also meant she had to suffer through being on the border of finishing for god-knows-how-long.

 

She shuddered when he pulled his fingers out of her, whimpering at the loss. As she laid there, spread open and panting with need, MacCready pulled off his boxers and tossed them to the side. Piper didn’t know much about dicks, but nothing seems out of the ordinary with his: It didn’t seem huge or small, no odd lean or strange markings. Personality-wise, she had plenty of experience dealing with dicks. Physically? Not so much.  _ Seems perfectly average, which is fitting, in a way. _

 

MacCready spit in his hand again, this time slicking up his cock. One hand went by the side of Piper’s head as he positioned himself, the other hand wrapped around his cock. Leaning over her, Piper looked up at him and gave him the nod to go ahead. She lifted her hips, trying to help him, and pressed a little kiss to his cheek as she did so. Her hands snaked around his neck, and he rested his forehead on hers, his head pressed against her hole.

 

“Ready?”

 

“Y-yeah… I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

 

MacCready slowly pushed himself in, groaning at the feeling. It burned, but the sensation of being filled had Piper’s head spinning. They exchanged half-formed kisses until he bottomed out inside of her, exhaling roughly against her lips as he did so. They sat there, getting used to how the other felt, for what seemed like an eternity. Piper had been squeezing her eyes shut, but when she blinked them open, she met MacCready’s hazy eyes. There was lust behind them, and a need that Piper just couldn’t describe.

 

There was silence between the two, and it felt awkward.  _ What do you talk about during sex? _ Piper struggled to come up with something to say, and the first thing she thought of slipped from her lips before she could process it.

 

“So I should probably omit this part from your interview, right?”

 

The comment seemed to catch MacCready off-guard, judging by his expression, and he laughed, his free hand flying to his chest. “Holy  _ sh— _ ah, hell, Piper. Yeah, you probably should.”

 

Piper laughed with him, then pulled him in for a soft kiss. When it broke, MacCready’s forehead was resting on hers again, and their bodies were pressed against each other’s. MacCready had one of his arms wrapped around Piper, and his free hand was cradling her face.

 

The thrusts were slow and soft, as he let Piper get used to the feeling. Her toes curled with each thrust, breathing shaky moans into MacCready’s mouth as they exchanged lazy kisses. The bed squeaked underneath them, but neither one of them were too concerned to stop the squeaking. They were too invested in each other, savoring this moment, and Piper prayed it would last.

 

“You’re so beautiful, you know that? You deserve to be loved,” MacCready whispered against her lips, his thumb caressing her cheek. He shifted his hips as he spoke, angling them a bit more downwards. The change make Piper gasp, and she dug her nails into his back. He picked up the pace with his thrusts, but they still weren’t too fast or too rough that Piper couldn’t handle them.

 

“You like that?” He asked, and she nodded. Moving his hand from her face, he lifted her legs up, and she instinctively wrapped them around his hips. She was exposed, free for the taking, but with his arm around her and his hand back on her cheek, she had never felt safer. She was his and he was hers, and nothing could change that right now.

 

“Robert...” she whined, feeling her orgasm fast approaching. His thumb traced over her bottom lip, and then slipped down, ghosting over her neck and giving it a light squeeze. She gasped, and then pulled him in by his dog tags for a hard kiss. “Robert, I’m… I’m close.” She admitted, and he responded with another kiss pressed to her lips.

His hips sped up again, this time fast enough to make Piper bounce against the bed. She gasped and cried out his name, pressure building between her legs. Quick, panicked kisses were shared between the two of them as their orgasms built, and she swore she heard a “ _ fuck, Piper, _ ” moaned in between kisses. But she could barely focus on his words with her ears ringing, and she tightened her legs around MacCready’s waist in anticipation.

 

One, two, three more strokes was all it took before Piper came. A loud scream of MacCready’s first name ripped from her lips as she threw her head back, and she slammed her body down on his cock on the last stroke. This orgasm was so unlike any other she had experienced; she could feel herself tighten around MacCready as she came, squirting as she did so. Her body was thumping and everything, from the tip of her head to her toes, was on fire. She hadn’t even noticed he was kissing her, silencing her scream before it got too loud. A few hard shakes ran through her body, her orgasm rolling off of her, and she moaned for MacCready as post-orgasmic bliss began to set in. 

 

She weakly held onto him as he took a few more thrusts to finish, and he pulled out and spurted hot cum on her stomach. Her ears were hazy, but she thought she heard him moan her name as he spilled his seed on her. They stayed like that; his hand cradling her head, his cum getting sticky on her body, their lips inches apart and brushing with each pant that left them.

 

MacCready was the one to pull away after they shared a short kiss, and he rolled onto his back next to Piper. They were shoulder to shoulder, covered in sweat and each other’s fluids, finally coming down from their orgasms. It was night now, early in the evening, but the stars shone from behind MacCready’s curtains. She felt MacCready shift next to her, and when she turned her head he was handing her his white shirt. She meekly wiped herself clean, and then the shirt was tossed back on the ground, and MacCready’s head was back on the pillow next to hers.

 

Piper felt like she should have been freaking out. This morning, she never dreamed her day would end like this. And with MacCready, no less! But her heart wasn’t racing, her mind wasn’t berating her. No, instead, there was silence. 

 

At least, until she heard MacCready shuffling beside her again. There was a shake, a click, and then she heard a flame growing. Smoke tickled her nostrils, and when she turned her head, MacCready had a lit cigarette perched between his lips and he was laying back down. Piper wanted to speak, call him out on the stereotype, but it didn’t feel right to speak after what they had just done. The silence went from awkward to right, and after a moment she felt MacCready’s hand bump against hers. The cigarette was offered to her, and she accepted it after a beat.

 

They stayed like that, passing the cigarette back and forth until it burnt down to the filter. The bump they exchanged turned into them holding hands, their fingers linked together. One cigarette turned into two, then three. It was a silent exchange, and they basked in their post-sex feelings as they smoked. There was no need to speak, no need to acknowledge anything besides the passing of the cigarette with a squeeze of their hand. MacCready was about to light a fourth when Piper let out a long yawn: she was exhausted, to say the least. She didn’t realize how much the sex they had took out of her. Instead of lighting the cigarette, MacCready rolled on his side and looked at Piper. She made eye contact with him, not moving from laying on her back.

 

“We can… uh we can talk about  _ this  _ in the morning. We should probably sleep.” He whispered, reaching over with his free hand and pushing some hair out of her eyes. He tucked it behind her ear, and in return she gave his hand a soft squeeze.

 

“Yeah, sleep sounds good.” She said with a nod, and she let go of his hand to roll on her side. Her head rested against his chest, and after a moment, MacCready’s arms wrapped around her. They snuggled into each other, their long legs getting tangled together and their body heat warming the other person. Piper sighed contently, and in return MacCready pressed a kiss to her forehead.

 

“Night, Piper. Sleep well.”

 

“You too, Robert. Night.”

 

They fell asleep like that, naked and tangled in each other’s arms. The world couldn’t bother the two of them tonight, and Piper knew she was safe as long as MacCready was there. 


	2. Drowning in You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> __
> 
> _After another kiss, MacCready began to stir. She watched his nose wrinkle, and he shifted Piper in his arms then pulled her closer to him. She giggled and tickled his side, and a sleepy smile broke out on his face. “Wakey wakey,” she whispered, kissing him again. This time, his lips met hers and they moved against each other’s for a moment._
> 
> _MacCready was the one to pull away, his eyes still closed, and he snuggled back up against Piper. He yawned, then smacked his lips before winding his arms tight around her._
> 
> _“Nnn… Five more minutes, Luc’.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Thanks for returning for chapter 2!
> 
> Just wanted to give a quick heads up that if you're emetophobic, I would walk with caution in this chapter. Nothing is explicitly described, but stuff is mentioned.
> 
> Alright, lets get going on this angst-filled adventure!

The rising sun of a new day grew over the Commonwealth’s horizon, shining through windows and over war-torn lands. In MacCready’s apartment a thin beam of light peeked through his thick curtains and fell over Piper’s eyes, stirring her from her sleep. As she blinked a few times, the world around her faded into view and she slowly came to her senses. MacCready had held her close through the night, and she slept like a rock in his arms. When she woke up, she was still in his arms, held just as tight as she was when they had fallen asleep.

 

Piper yawned and tilted her head away from MacCready; he didn’t wake up at the noise, which Piper was surprised at.  _ Didn’t think he would be a heavy sleeper.  _ She laid there in his arms, enjoying the sweet serenity of the early morning. Outside the tiny window of MacCready’s tiny apartment, Piper could hear the cawing of ravens in the distance, and the sound of the Brahmin by the trough waking up to start another long day of walking on trade routes with their caravans.

 

Turning back to look at MacCready, Piper sighed to herself and reached up to run the tips of her fingers down his face. He looked relaxed for one of the first times in his life; even the corners of his mouth were turned upwards ever so slightly into a soft smile. He didn’t wake up when Piper traced her thumb over his bottom lip, which was rough under the pad of her finger. His facial hair was kept short, but Piper could tell it needed a trim: the hairs of his mustache were starting to curl over his top lip, and his beard was starting to brush out more from his chin. Her fingers danced over his jawline, strong but slim, and covered in stubble. As she looked down his neck, she could see the bruises from last night on his skin. They had bloomed into dark blue and purple splotches, surrounded by the faintest outline of teeth marks. Piper figured hers didn’t look much better, and they ached when she thought about them.

 

She pressed a soft kiss to his lips, then mumbled his name against them. Her hands slid down his body, resting on his waist. Though they were practically the same height, MacCready was lithe with taut muscles that were subtly defined; he didn’t carry an ounce of fat on him. Piper was small but curvy, with thick thighs and a hint of definition to her figure. But in MacCready’s arms, she felt smaller than him, and liked the feeling of drowning in his arms as he held her.

 

After another kiss, MacCready began to stir. She watched his nose wrinkle, and he shifted Piper in his arms then pulled her closer to him. She giggled and tickled his side, and a sleepy smile broke out on his face. “Wakey wakey,” she whispered, kissing him again. This time, his lips met hers and they moved against each other’s for a moment.

 

MacCready was the one to pull away, his eyes still closed, and he snuggled back up against Piper. He yawned, then smacked his lips before winding his arms tight around her.

 

“ _ Nnn…  _ Five more minutes, Luc’.”

 

Piper froze. That softness was gone, replaced with a hard pit in her chest. Suddenly, the room felt even smaller than it was, and MacCready felt like a snake wound around her. Her senses were flooded, and his words repeated in her head over and over again. 

 

**_Five more minutes, Luc’. Five more minutes, Luc’. Five more minutes, Luc’. Five more minutes, Luc’._ **

 

A voice in her head awoke and screamed at her, telling her she was _stupid_ , a _fucking idiot_. That he _didn’t care_ about her, or even _like_ her. That MacCready was _using her, just like Franky had_. Just like _everyone_ _had_. He just wanted to get his dick wet. He still loved _Luc’,_ Lucy, his dead wife. She could never compete with her, _never._

 

Piper’s heart was pounding, and she shoved MacCready away in a painful flurry of emotions. She bit back hot and angry tears as she jumped out of bed. Their clothes were in a messy pile on the floor, and Piper frantically searched through them for her clothes, throwing them on as she found them. She didn’t care if they were inside out or backwards: she needed to be dressed and she needed to be gone.  **Now.**

 

MacCready was awake by now, sitting up in bed and looking at her with confusion in his sleepy eyes. He was talking to her, trying to ask her what was wrong, but the ringing in her ears overpowered his voice and she continued to get dressed. When she felt his hand on her arm, she pushed him away and finally turned to look at him, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. Her shirt and pants were on, along with her gloves, and she held her socks in her hand. When she spoke, she shook them at him with anger boiling in her system.

 

“This was… this was a  _ mistake.  _ I’m never going to-- I-- I--” Piper was at a loss for words. There was so much she wanted to say, but she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. “I can’t do this.”

 

“Do what, can’t do what? Piper, look at me!” MacCready was begging, his eyes wide with confusion and concern. When he touched her again, she pulled away hard, which caught him off guard. MacCready stumbled backwards, falling hard on his hands. “What happened?”

 

She pulled her coat on, dressed fully save for the scarf in her hand. When she blinked, the world grew blurry, and she scrubbed at her eyes to push back the tears. Piper refused to cry in front of him, she was too proud to do that. MacCready stood out against the blurry background, the sliver of sunlight behind him framing his body.

 

“You-- I-- You still love her. I can’t do this.”

 

Her words made something click in MacCready’s mind, and she watched his face shift from confusion to realization. “Oh my god, Piper. Piper, I-- I didn’t mean--”

 

Before she could listen to what he would say, Piper was gone, storming out of his room. MacCready didn’t chase after her, but Piper wouldn’t have listened to him even if he did. Those tears she had held back finally began to fall, blurring her vision as she stumbled onto the streets of Sanctuary. It was still early enough that no one was out and about, awake to see the mess that she was. Her heart was pounding, and that ringing in her ears was still present. She did the first thing her mind told her to do:  _ run. Run far away. _

 

She took off with the rising sun, out of Sanctuary and over the broken bridge. The run to Red Rocket was short, too short: if she stopped now, MacCready would easily be able to catch up with her if he was following her. Piper’s mind screamed to keep running, so she took off again. Hooking a right at the old gas station, Piper ran through the grassy hills alongside the river by Sanctuary, stumbling down a small hill that caught her off guard. She landed hard on her feet in the grass and faltered, stopping for a moment to catch her breath. Gasping and heaving, Piper put her hands on her knees and took a deep breath in. That powered her up, and before she could blink, she started to run again.

 

Piper knew this area: her and Blue had scouted it out during one of their first trips together. There was a Ranger Cabin in the distance, an artifact from the pre-war world. Sometimes, Supermutants could be found roaming here, but today it was unusually quiet. A Bloatfly buzzed in the distance, but Piper managed to outmaneuver it. Her .10 millimeter was heavy in her pocket, bouncing against her leg as she ran.

 

When the radio tower appeared, Piper started to slow down. The Ranger Cabin was close enough to be seen in the distance, and her legs were screaming in pain. She almost fell into the cabin trying to walk up the steps, and her legs felt like jelly as she leaned in the doorway. 

 

The cabin was small, with a dirty mattress pushed into one corner and an upturned table in another. A pale yellow suitcase laid open on the floor, with clothes strewn about. When Piper and Blue were here last, the skeleton of a runway girl was sprawled out on the mattress. Blue had taken the time to move her bones outside, thankfully, because Piper wasn’t sure she would be able to handle that right now.

 

She fell onto the mattress, and everything exploded all at once. The pain in her legs, the pain in her heart, the emotions and the feelings all spilled over. Lying on her stomach, Piper buried her head in the mattress and sobbed, letting the tears flow freely.

 

_ I… I let him… just  _ use  _ me like that.  _ She thought, a hand snaking between her body and the mattress to cover her mouth. She tried to swallow, but her throat was too tight, and a hearty sob escaped her hand.  _ I thought I had learned with Franky… I’m so… stupid! This is all my fault. Again. All my fault again. _

 

Piper slowly rolled herself on her back, her tear-stained face wet and heavy.  _ And now MacCready. Stupid, stupid MacCready. He was different… but barely. I bet he thought about her the whole time. I bet… I bet… _

 

Piper managed to stifle the next sob, biting her knuckle hard enough to turn the skin red. She didn’t know what to think, besides the angry emotions flooding her brain. As tears fell, her mind grew quiet and a numbness took over. All she could do was cry: cry the anger out, cry the emotions out until she felt like a shell of herself. She couldn’t let herself feel or else it would all start up again. That memory of him calling her the wrong name would loop and she would lose it all over again. She had to be numb, and crying like this was the way to do it.

 

Piper wasn’t sure how long she spent laid out on the mattress with tears streaming down her face until she heard the familiar buzz of a stingwing. It flew in through the window, its bloodsac empty and hunger in its compound eyes. Thankfully, her gun was only a pocket away, and she sat up with a fire in her eyes. One bullet took the bloodsucking creature down; the feeling of shooting her gun made her blood burn, and she angrily fired another shot against the wall. Piper would have continued, but she had forgotten to pack a spare magazine with her. Each bullet had to count. 

 

She was forgetful like that, and sometimes she was more concerned about having extra pencils than bullets, and cared more for a potential story than her own life. MacCready always chastised her for that, telling her it was a miracle she hadn’t been killed yet. However, he always carried a few spare magazines (and pencils) for her, and would give them to her whenever she needed them with a smile that made her cheeks flush.

 

The thought of MacCready made her heart throb, and she put her pistol down on the ground. Her hands went to her face to blot away the forming tears, and she let out a shaky sigh. “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath. Pulling her legs to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and continued to reflect on the choices she made this morning. In painful times like this, Piper always turned to a notebook. Even if what she wrote made no sense, it helped get all of thoughts in her head out. But her travel notebook had been left on MacCready’s desk and her pencils were currently scattered across his floor. It was just her and her thoughts now, all alone in this little cabin in the woods. Hopefully she could work this all out, she silently wished. 

 

Piper whined to break the silence and slowly rocked on her bottom; she was sore from last night’s escapade, and the rocking didn’t exactly help. With her neck at this angle, the bruises on her skin ached. They were unfriendly reminders of a more than friendly night, and she let out a quiet groan.

 

_ What did you think, he was going to sweep you off of your feet? Date you? Love you? He’s an Ex-Gunner mercenary who still loves his dead wife and will never care about you. _

 

A soft “I—“ escaped Piper’s throat, an accidental reply to the conversation in her head. She swallowed hard, then wiped away another tear with her thumb.

 

_ I just thought… maybe he would care. He seemed different. _

 

_ You were wrong. _

 

“I know I was wrong,” she whispered under her breath, and she buried her face deep in her knees, her arms tight around her legs. “I never should have interviewed him, never let it get that far.”

 

_ Never, never, never. _

 

Piper was content on staying like this, curled up in a ball with no cares to the outside world… Until her stomach began to protest. She knew she was hungry, but she just didn’t feel like eating, even though her last meal was yesterday’s lunch (she had skipped dinner to sleep with MacCready, which she now regretted). But Piper knew that if she tried to exert another ounce of energy without eating something, she would certainly pass out. 

 

Fishing around in the sack on the back of her jacket, Piper pulled out a small flask of purified water and a box of gumdrops.  _ Meal of champions _ . All it took was one sip from her flask to make her realize that it wasn’t water in there, but pure vodka. She choked down the sip with a loud cough, then shook her head. “What the hell, Piper,” she wondered out loud, trying to figure out what her past-self was thinking.

 

The booze made her head hurt, and she cradled it in her hand as she popped a gumdrop into her mouth. It was stale and tasted like whatever a “ _ grape _ ” was supposed to be. Nora explained to her that they were a pre-war fruit like a tarberry, but the taste of the gumdrop was anything but fruity. It made her mouth bitter and tart, and she took a swig of the vodka to try and wash the flavor out. It didn’t help, and made Piper only that much more miserable.

 

With a sigh, Piper rested her head back against the wooden wall of the cabin and popped a cherry-flavored gumdrop into her mouth.  _ This sucks. MacCready sucks. Everything sucks.  _ She thought as she chewed and swallowed, and then she rubbed her hand down her face.  _ What are you going to do when you get back? Avoid him forever? Or talk to him? You can’t avoid him: you’re going to have to do patrol rounds together at some point. And then what? What happens when it’s 3AM and you’re alone together? Stare at each other and not say anything? Pretend like he isn’t there? You fucked up big time, Piper Wright. _

 

Piper winced at her intrusive thoughts, knowing damn well they were right. She was almost always paired with MacCready for her patrol rounds because they got along and their fighting styles worked well together. Piper was quick to tag enemies and handy with grenades, and MacCready would hide in the shadows and take people out with a silenced hunting rifle. Once, the two of them took down a whole raider party by themselves and the only injury sustained was when MacCready got too close to Piper and accidentally set of a landmine she had placed. There were some ringing ears on both their parts for the next few days, and MacCready dropped a good amount of caps on liquor one night to make it up to Piper. The drunken compliments he peppered on her didn’t help the lingering crush she had on him at the time, and she remembers that it was the first time he ever called her “angel”. She turned red as a beet at the nickname, and it stuck from there.

 

The memory made her blush, and when she blinked, her vision was blurred with tears. She angrily wiped at her eyes, pissed at herself that just  _ thinking _ about him had her like this. The next swig she took out of the flask was backed with discontent, and Piper chugged as much as she could before it hurt to swallow. Her flask held more than she remembered, and on an empty stomach the liquor left her head buzzing. Piper shook her head, trying to somehow shake out all of these feelings bubbling inside of her.  _ It always seemed like he cared about me, even before we slept together... _

 

Another thought flashed through her mind, of her and MacCready mid-fight once again. This time, Supermutants were storming Sanctuary and all of the companions were out in full force fighting alongside Sole. Piper’s .10mm was doing almost no damage against the greenskins, and she was running out of grenades to lob. A Supermutant, big and green and ugly, had her backed into a wall, and she was shooting at it wildly in an attempt to slow it down. Her bullets did squat against the Supermutant’s thick skin, and she had a feeling in her gut that this was how it was going to end. She saw it raise its arms, let out a battle cry… and then his head was gone. When his body fell MacCready was standing there with a smirk, and he jokingly blew the smoke off of the end of his hunting rifle. Even though her heart was pounding with adrenaline, it made Piper laugh and MacCready grinned in response. Another Supermutant, this one a Suicider, could be heard in the distance, and the two of them looked at each other with worried expressions.  _ “I think it’s time to run?” _ MacCready asked, and her response was a simple  _ “Oh, yeah.”  _ He held his hand out and she took it, and the two bolted it down the main road. Thankfully, Preston and his Minutemen got to the Suicider before it could enter Sanctuary, and Nora was rewarded with her first Mini Nuke. Piper and MacCready kept their hands together for too long afterwards, and Piper almost made a noise of disappointment when MacCready finally pulled his hand away from hers.

 

A loud groan left Piper, and she buried her face in her knees. She started to realize that she wasn’t blindingly mad at MacCready, but instead she was hurt. Hurt because she believed he genuinely cared about her. Hurt because… because she was beginning to realize that she cared about him as well, more than she was willing to accept. She had for a while, too; the little touches, the soft giggles, the warm cheeks and rapidly beating heart whenever he got close to her. Piper had always thought her little crush had just disappeared, but instead it went into hibernation and was now returning as something so much  _ more  _ than she had ever realized.

 

The more she thought about it, the fact that it seemed so “wild” for her to end up in MacCready’s arms yesterday just seemed silly. MacCready was a flirt, but never in a pushy way: they teased each other almost daily with little words, giggles and glances (and alcohol only added fuel to their fire). They had too many things in common: they loved comic books, good booze, and long lazy nights. Their senses of humor overlapped, and whenever Piper told a joke (that was usually pretty bad), MacCready was always the first one to laugh at it. Likewise, whenever MacCready told a bad pun, Piper was always hiding her laughter behind her hand while the others chastised him.

 

Which is why it hurt her so much when MacCready called her “Luc’”. Because she had fallen for him  **hard** , trusted him so much, and genuinely believed that he felt the same way towards her. But that trust was broken the second he uttered the wrong name. Even if he was still half-asleep, even if he was dreaming; it hurt Piper to be wronged like that. She had fallen hook, line, and sinker for Robert Joseph MacCready, and just the thought of how peaceful he looked this morning before everything happened made her heart hurt. She took another hard swig from the flask, hoping to slow down her beating heart, and the last few drops of vodka burned on her tongue. 

 

Laying out on the mattress, Piper stretched out her legs and yelped at the burning sensation in her muscles from her run. Her head ached and her eyes were heavy; even though she had slept through the night, her body was screaming at her to sleep more.  _ It’ll only be a few minutes. I’ll just close my eyes and wake up in a few minutes. _

 

When Piper woke up, it was dark out. She may have dreamt of nothing, but she hadn’t expected to wake up to nothingness. She could hear bloatflies buzzing outside as she woke up, and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  _ Ah, shit,  _ was her first thought, and she pushed herself up to her knees. Behind her was a lantern, and she fished in her pocket for her lighter. Thankfully, the lantern still had some oil in it, and enough of a wick to catch fire. It took a few minutes, but soon Piper had a reasonable light to guide her home. 

 

She walked back to Sanctuary with the lantern in one hand and her gun in the other. Only one bloatfly tried to bother her, and it was taken down with a swat of her hand and a quick shot. It was a short walk to the Red Rocket gas station, and Piper left the lantern there when she walked through the building. In exchange, she snagged one of the Nuka Cola’s Blue had stashed away in an emergency bag under the counter; she was hungrier than she realized, and it felt like her stomach was eating itself. There was no food in the bag (Sole had probably stopped here with Deacon before hitting the road), but Piper shrugged it off and hoped that dinner was ready by the time she got back.

 

Piper let the stars guide her the rest of the way home, her hands in her pockets and her scarf tight around her neck: there was no need for anyone to see the bruises and ask questions. A knot had formed in her stomach the closer she got to Sanctuary, and she hoped she wouldn’t see MacCready when she got there. She had no idea what she would do if she walked over to the campfire and saw him sitting there as if nothing had happened. Would she run again, or would she hide? Or would she face the facts and try to fix this mess that they were in?

 

_ I really hope it doesn’t come to that. _

 

A few minutes later and she was in Sanctuary, and she made a beeline for the fire. Everyone was gathered around, sans Sole and Deacon ( _probably_ _still running Railroad missions_ ), Nick and Dogmeat ( _probably still in Diamond City_ )… and MacCready. A shaky sigh of relief left her, and Piper sneaked in between Preston and Danse to get some food. Curie was at the pot, stirring what looked like vegetable stew with rice noodles mixed in. Her three round eyes narrowed at Piper in a sort of all-knowing stare, and she pulled her cap down over her face as Curie served her. In the darkness and by the light of the fire, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the state she was in, but Curie’s mechanical eyes could see what others couldn’t.

 

Cait was laughing as Curie spooned the soup into a bowl, and Piper turned to look at her when she tugged on her coat. “Piper, I was jus’ remindin’ Hancock ‘ere of the last time the egghead made this stew. Remember how sick we all got?” Piper brushed her off with a mumble, and took a seat next to her.

 

“If I recall,  _ Mademoiselle _ Cait, it was because I went against my programming codes and added squirrel to the soup. I was not designed to cook meat.” Curie said, and Piper imagined that if she had a tongue, Curie would be biting it back right now. Curie was always so polite, so sweet and naive. How Cait’s sassing didn’t turn her into a murderbot like those Mr. Gutsy’s, she had no idea.

 

“Pft, vegetarians.” Cait mumbled with a roll of her green eyes, and she took a long swig from her bottle of Gwinnett Ale. Piper ate silently for a few moments, letting the noodles fill her starving stomach, before turning to Hancock on the other side of her. “So, did anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

 

Hancock’s hairless eyebrows furrowed, and he cocked his head to the side. Noodles hung from between his radiated lips, and he sucked them in before speaking. “‘Gone’?”

 

Piper swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah, I was… out scavenging. Did I miss anything?” She asked quietly, hoping Hancock wouldn’t bring up MacCready.

 

“Honestly, Piper, no offense, but I didn’t notice you were gone.”

 

“Yeah, neither’id I,” Cait butt in from the other side, resting her head on Piper’s shoulder for a moment. “Just thought you were holed up in your room writin’ your little stories.”

 

Their words hurt Piper more than she realized, and she shifted uncomfortably on the log that served as her seat. “Oh… okay.”

 

“Piper, if it makes you feel any better, I thought you went with Nora and Deacon.” Preston said, leaning up over the crackling fire to look at Piper.

 

“Oh, so she’s not the fancy ‘General’ any more? Just plain old ‘Nora’?” Hancock teased, and Piper saw Preston tug his hat down to hide a blush.

 

“Shut up, Hancock.” He muttered, and Hancock burst out laughing, and the others around the fire joined in. Piper forced out a quiet laugh, then went back to eating. She finished her bowl of vegetable soup and noodles quickly and washed it down with a bottle of ale, then served herself another helping. She was still starving, and she hoped a second serving would settle her stomach. 

 

Somehow the negative feelings bottled up in Piper began to seep through her facade, and as dinner progressed no one spoke to her. They let her eat in silence, the conversations flowing around her as she downed her second bowl and got a third serving. The only person who spoke to her was Danse, and he quietly asked if she could pass him a can of purified water. She did, tossing it into the metal hands of his power armor without saying a word.

 

Piper was left alone by the fire as the rest of the crew migrated into the bar for the night, or in Danse’s case, to the guard tower by the entrance to Sanctuary. He wasn’t a drinker, and he rarely stepped foot inside of the bar unless there was a party going on (even then, he would only show up for a few minutes and then leave). Once Piper had finished her third bowl of stew, she figured she might as well go and join everyone else. If she couldn’t be happy, she could at least be shitface drunk.

 

She was still nursing her fourth bottle of ale as she walked into the bar, quietly closing the door shut behind her. It was busy tonight, and companions were mingling with traveling traders and settlers alike. There were no green caps in sight, no cocky smiles from a blue-eyed man to be seen. Piper thanked her lucky stars, and slid up to the bar, pushing her way through to get a stool. She polished off the bottle fast, then pushed it towards the Mr. Handy bartender when he floated over to her.

 

“What’s the strongest thing you’ve got back there?” She asked, and the bartender took a moment to respond.

 

“Just got some new whiskey in. I would say it would put hair on your chest, Miss Piper, but I feel that may be a tad inappropriate.” Piper rolled her eyes and fished around in her pouch for a moment. She produced a bag of caps and dropped it on the counter. “Give me a bottle, and keep a second cold.” The Mr. Handy did as she asked and produced the small bottle of whiskey, and she pulled the cork out with her teeth, spit it on the ground, then took a long drink. It burned her throat and made her eyes water, but at least it dampened the pain in her chest.

 

Piper was left alone as she drank, and she took pleasure in that. There was no need to bring anyone else down with her. She hoped the night would stay that way, and she could just crawl home drunk and pass out and wake up whenever she felt like it. It seemed like the night was going in that direction, and by the time she had nearly half the bottle down, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Whipping around, she saw Cait through slightly-blurred vision.

 

“What do you want?” She asked, a slur to her words. Piper could handle her liquor easily and rarely got this drunk off of so little alcohol. She had one of the best tolerances out of all of the companions...  _ besides MacCready.  _ The thought of him make her visibly shake, and she took another hard swig from the bottle. “I’m not in the mood, Cait.”

 

“Jeez, Piper. I’m not ‘ere to flirt with ya.” There was actual concern to Cait’s voice, and that took Piper by surprise. She didn’t think she was  _ that  _ drunk, but from the outside looking in, maybe she looked worse than she thought. Cait took the bar stool next to Piper’s, a glass of something that looked like vodka in her hand. “Just wanted to see what was on your mind.”

 

“Nothing good,” Piper mumbled, the lip of the bottle still pressed to her lips. She took another sip and swallowed hard; the burn from the booze was gone by now, replaced by a soft warmth in the back of her throat. Her stomach was hot, but at least her brain wasn’t on fire any more. “I don’t want to talk about hi— _ it. _ ”

 

“‘Him’? Piper, men are garbage. Don’t drink yourself t’death over one.”

 

“Never said it was anyone. Just… why do you care?” Piper shot back in an attempt to steer the conversation towards another topic, swinging on her barstool a bit concerningly. When she looked over Cait’s shoulder, she noticed that the bar was basically empty, save for Curie in the corner and Hancock asleep on the couch.  _ God, how long have I been here?  _ She thought rationally, the first complete thought to cross her brain in a while. She silenced it with another swig, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. 

 

“Just makin’ sure you’re alright, Piper. You’ve been off all night.”

 

“Not like you noticed I was gone.”

 

Cait reeled a little, and her brows furrowed for a moment before she took a deep breath. Her eyes weren’t wild like usual, and Piper’s boozy brain made a quick connection: Cait wasn’t on drugs right now, and she probably wasn’t even that tipsy.  _ What bizarro world is this? _

 

“Am I supposed to keep tabs on ya twenty-four-seven? I’m ‘ere to watch people’s backs in a fight and make sure nobody dies... And you’ve been drinkin’ that bottle all night. Are ya sure there’s nothin’ botherin’ ya?”

 

“Nothing I want to talk about,” Piper admitted, and she chugged from the bottle until she felt like she couldn’t breathe. When she set it down on the counter, it was nearly three-quarters of the way empty, and Piper heard Cait sighing next to her.

 

“I can’t force ya to talk, but if there’s something ya need… You know I’m here, right? And Curie too. She was the one who told me ya looked like hell.” When her name was mentioned, Curie floated over and sighed with her body as best as a Ms. Nanny robot could. 

 

“ _ Mademoiselle _ Piper, please, at least let me give you a check up _.  _ You look as if you haven’t eaten in quite some time and are quite dehydrated. That cannot be good for your human bodily systems.”

 

As Curie spoke, Piper felt the room start to spin around her (and not in the fun way). Her stomach gurgled, and she quickly pressed a hand over her mouth as all of her senses went from dulled to on fire. Putting that much alcohol into her body with only hot soup in her stomach was  _ not  _ a smart move on Piper’s part. She felt Cait’s hands on her, and the cage fighter managed to drag her out the back door fast enough so the contents of her stomach met the grass instead of the bar’s floor. Cait held her hair back as Piper let it all out, hot tears dripping down her cheeks as she fell down onto her hands and knees. 

 

There was a pause in her sickness, and Piper blubbered out “I’m sorry for being an ass a few minutes ago.” She heard Cait chuckle, and a cold hand touched her back. “Apologize when yer done, and don’t upchuck on me boots.” Right before the world began to spin again, she saw Curie float out of the bar with a few cans of purified water in her arms. Then everything went green and Piper bent her head back down.

 

This repeated two more times before the last of Piper’s vegetable-soup-with-noodles-and-too-much-whiskey-and-ale-surprise left her body. When the last of it was out of her, Cait gently picked her up and carried her to another side of the bar so she wouldn’t have to be around that. The metal wall was cold, even though her jacket, and Piper shakily accepted a can of open water from Curie with a quiet “thank you” when it was offered to her. Cait was kneeling beside her, wiping away tears and tucking Piper’s hair behind her ears. Piper hadn’t even noticed that Curie had taken off her cap, and Cait set it back on her head once her hair was in place.

 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered her apology again, and Cait just smiled and gave her shoulder a soft squeeze. 

 

“We all say stupid shit when we’re pissed and piss-faced. Do ya wanna talk about it?” 

 

When Piper swallowed her throat burned, and she took a small sip from the can of warm water in an attempt to counteract the feeling. “I…” Her words trailed off, and she thought of MacCready. She wondered where he was, what he could be doing right now. Was he asleep? Awake? Was he upset, or was he over all of this? Was she just being dramatic, a silly girl who fell too hard, or maybe — just maybe — was he as wrecked as she was? 

 

“I… I really don’t want to…”

 

A pained smile crossed Cait’s face, and she leaned in to press a warm kiss to Piper’s cool forehead. “Alright, darlin’, we won’t. Are you feelin’ better after throwin’ up 75 caps worth of booze?”

 

Piper couldn’t help but chuckle at her stupidity, and Curie laughed too. “Do not worry,  _ Mademoiselle  _ Piper, I retrieved your money from the bartender. He did not plan on charging you anyway.” The bag of caps landed at her feet, and Piper slowly pocketed it. Her body ached and it hurt to move, and Cait saw the pained look on Piper’s face.

 

“Jeez, whatever happened to you took a toll on ya. Want us to carry you to your apartment?”

 

Piper nodded sheepishly, as she didn’t trust her legs to work, and then she felt a pair of arms wrap around her bridal-style. The walk was a blur, and the next thing Piper knew Cait was laying her down on her bed and Curie was checking her vitals.

 

“Vital signs are normal. The only issue is your dehydration. I’ve left some waters for you on your dresser, drink them slowly. I will stay with you for the night to observe you, if you will allow it.” Curie stated, and Piper just shook her head.

 

“Thanks, but I’d rather be alone tonight. Just need to clear my thoughts.” 

 

“Just as long as you don’t clear them like you did your stomach.” Cait quickly replied. Piper chuckled at that, and Cait smiled as her and Curie moved towards the door.

 

“If ya need anything, I’m across the way. Goodnight, Piper.”

 

“ _ Bonne nuit, Mademoiselle Piper! Fais de beaux rêves! _ ”

 

When the door closed, Piper sighed and rolled on her side. MacCready and Piper’s rooms faced the same way, overlooking the river that ran in front of Sanctuary. However, he was one floor up and on the opposite side of the hallway: Danse lived above her, and Nick was below her. She sighed again, and reached out to grab a can of water. She sipped it slowly, and when she finished the can, she got out of bed on shaky legs and got into her pajamas. She slipped into a new pair of underwear and some baggy sweatpants and tugged a loose white T-shirt over head head.

 

Piper settled back into bed and pulled her blanket over her body, shivering as a cool breeze blew through her window. Sleeping alone felt… weird: even though they had only slept together one night, she didn’t realize how much more preferable it was, compared to sleeping by herself. She missed MacCready, and she hated that she did. She hated that she liked him as much as she did, hated that she missed his blue eyes and cocky grin and little laugh when he told bad jokes (and  _ god _ , she missed his bad jokes) and the way he flipped when he found out they shared the same favorite Unstoppables Comic (issue #4 —  _ Trapped in the Dimension of the Pterror-Dactyl!  _ It was the first comic MacCready ever read, and when Nat went through her dinosaur phase it was the only thing she wanted Piper to read to her before bed). Piper scrubbed her hands over her face, then rolled in her side to look out her window. 

 

The curtains were pulled open, and Piper felt her eyes getting heavy as she looked at the stars. As sleep came to her, she swore she heard a familiar humming of a familiar bass clarinet line in the distance, but then again, she may have already been dreaming…

 

…

 

“ _ Bonjour, Mademoiselle! _ ” Curie’s cheery voice pulled Piper from her sleep, and her eyes fluttered open as she woke up. There was a pounding in her head, but Curie’s soft voice did not agitate it. “I have come by this morning to bring you the breakfast that you slept through.  _ Monsieur  _ Preston prepared something he calls a  _ Minutemen Surprise.  _ I believe that the surprise is the Mutfruit.” A small bowl was passed to Piper, and in it were dried oats soaked in the juices of a Mutfruit, with large chunks of the purple fruit mixed throughout. She picked up the spoon and took a small bite, humming at the taste. “Give my compliments to the chef.”

 

“Oh, Piper, with your silly human colloquialisms. I will make sure to tell  _ Monsieur  _ Preston of your kind words.” As Curie floated closer to Piper, she clamped her arm around Piper’s wrist and quietly took her vitals as Piper ate. “You’re functioning at near-perfect human vital signs. However, you are still dehydrated, which is normal.” There was a pinch, and Piper looked over as Curie injected her with a stimpack. The throbbing in her head slowly began to fade as the medication ran through her body. “This should help with your dehydration, though I would recommend you do not perform any strenuous exercises today.”

 

Piper nodded, swallowing a mouthful of oats and Mutfruit. Curie fell silent as Piper ate, and Piper enjoyed the quiet, though it was a bit unnerving having Curie just floating there, watching her. Her mind began to wander, and she turned to look out the window by her bed as she continued to eat. However, it didn’t wander too far away, as Curie interrupted her fleeting thoughts with a loud and robotic gasp.

 

“ _ Mon dieu  _ Piper, what has happened to your neck?!”

 

_ Shit. _

 

“I, uh, got in a fight with a Stingwing and lost.” She lied through a mouthful of oats, and the way Curie’s circular eyes narrowed at her showed that she didn’t believe her at all.  _ Shit! _

 

“ _ Mademoiselle,  _ if that is to be believed… a Stingwing leaving blotched bruises such as those? And where are the insertion marks? And,  _ mon dieu,  _ the tests we’ll have to run!” Piper wasn’t sure if Curie was genuinely concerned or pointing out that she saw through Piper’s bluff, but either way Piper knew she had to stop her before she ended up strapped to a medical bed with Curie running god-knows-what tests on her. She put the now-empty bowl down on her nightstand then raised her hands to get Curie to quiet down.

 

“Curie,” she hissed, keeping her voice below a whisper. “If I tell you what actually happened… promise you won’t tell anyone else?”

 

“Why, of course. I cannot reveal what a patient has told me to anyone else.”

 

“And you promise you won’t run any tests?”

 

“Promise!”

 

Piper sighed, then ran her fingers through her hair before speaking. “It’s from a person. We were… you know.” Piper bobbed her head and moved her hands to fill in what she wasn’t saying. Curie gave her as confused of a look as a Ms. Nanny could, and Piper sighed again.

 

“We were having sex, okay? And h— the person bit me.”

 

“Why would someone bite another person during intercourse?” Curie asked, her voice too loud for Piper’s comfort, and she wildly shushed her.

 

“Curie, god… it’s… I’m not explaining this right now. That’s not the point. What is the point is I don’t need any tests, I don’t need blood drawn, and you don’t need to worry. Okay?” Piper reached out and touched one of Curie’s arms, smiling softly. “Please, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big girl.”

 

Curie was quiet for a few moments, then her eyestalks fell into more of a relaxed position. “If you insist, Piper.” A pause, then: “When  _ Madame  _ finally finds me a human body, will I understand this… bedroom biting?”

 

Piper laughed at her wording, covering her mouth with her hand. “Never change, Curie. You are too sweet.”

 

“Oh, Piper. You and your laugh.  _ Monsieur  _ MacCready was right when he said it sounds like bells! I can only hope I laugh as much as you do when I am human!”

 

Curie dropped that bomb on Piper as she took her empty bowl and headed out of her room. Thankfully, Curie had her back to Piper and couldn’t see how her face fell at the mention of MacCready. When the door closed behind her and silence fell over the room, Piper buried her face in her hands and let out a quiet whine.

 

_ Of course he said that… asshole. _

 

She wasn’t as beat-up as she thought she would feel hearing his name again, but it still hurt. With a sigh, Piper straightened out her back and leaned over to draw her thin curtains closed.  _ It’s going to be a long day, I can already tell. _

 

Her morning after Curie was quiet and uneventful, shockingly enough, but time crawled by. She had woken up late, but before lunch she had showered, gotten dressed (making sure that her scarf hid the bruises on her neck and that the makeup she had smudged and cried off was redone), and made her way to the trading center. She bartered with an old vendor for a new travel notebook and package of pencils, knowing full well she would probably never see her old notebook again. The wrinkled vendor drove a hard price and wanted good money for the untouched notebook, but with some finagling and what the others called her “Gift of Gab,” Piper managed to get all of her items for nothing more than a few caps.

 

It felt good to have a notebook in her pocket again, and the pencils tucked into the twine on her glove felt like sheathed swords. She could feel her old self coming back, slowly but surely. However, there was still a heavy weight on her shoulders that she just couldn’t seem to shake. As she walked by the back of the apartments, on the side her room faced, she swore she heard fabric rustling. Looking up to the third floor, she saw the curtains of MacCready’s room shifting. Maybe it was a breeze, maybe it wasn’t; either way, it made Piper’s stomach twist, and she walked by quickly with her head down.

 

Looking down at the ground was a distraction, though, and without realizing it, Piper slammed into Cait. The two tumbled, but both caught themselves before they hit the ground.

 

“Piper, y’better watch where ya goin’!” Cait chastised with a laugh, and Piper pulled the brim of her cap down to hide her embarrassment. “I hope you’re not still pissed from yesterday.”

 

“Nah, Cait, I think I left my drunkenness behind the bar.”

 

Cait laughed again, and she gave Piper’s shoulder a soft squeeze. “Next time ya decide to do somethin’ like that, at least pick somethin’ that’ll stay in your stomach.”

 

Piper shrugged and moved to turn away. Her and her notebook had to be introduced, and Piper’s fingers were buzzing to write. There was a shady spot under the tree in the roundabout that had her name on it, and Piper was content on spending the rest of the day there writing out her problems until this  _ goddamn weight  _ was off of her shoulders.

 

But, of course, Cait just had to open her mouth and utter a sentence Piper didn’t want to hear right now. “Hey, have you seen MacCready? It’s his turn to cook lunch.”

 

Piper felt her mood drop, and she shrugged her shoulders, looking away from Cait. “Haven’t seen him since the day Nick left,” she lied, her voice soft. Thankfully, Cait didn’t catch on, and Piper heard her call out “‘Ey, handsome! Preston! Have you seen MacCready? It’s his shift for food.”

 

Piper looked up and watched Preston walk over, his laser rifle slung over his back. It was a hot day, and Preston had foregone his duster, long vest, and scarf. He was talking into the radio on his rifle’s holding strap, the light tan leather standing out from his black tank top. If he wasn’t with Nora and she wasn’t an emotional wreck, Piper probably would’ve had to hide her blush behind her cap; Preston was a damn good looking guy, and anyone who had eyes would agree with her.

 

Piper caught the end of his conversation —  _ “Alright, Nor’y, I’ll see you tomorrow”  _ — as he walked over, and he tipped back his cap to look at Cait and Piper. “MacCready? Haven’t seen him around for a few days. I know the General had him holed up in his room on sniper detail, but his shift ended yesterday. Do you need him for something?”

 

“Who’s the General, Preston?  _ Nor’y? _ ” Cait teased, ignoring the question, and Preston playfully pushed her shoulder. “Shut up, Cait.” He turned to Piper and looked her over, his eyebrows raised when he saw her outfit. “Damn, Piper, it’s hot as hell outside. Aren’t you sweating in that jacket?”

 

Truth be told, she  _ was  _ sweating, but she had to wear it if she wanted an excuse to keep the scarf on. “Ah, no. Not really. I like being toasty. Keeps my brain goin’.”

 

“Mhm… Anyways, the General said she’ll be back before tomorrow afternoon. Whatever her and Deacon did went well, and they’re not too far away. She said something about maybe finding a body for Curie, which is nice.”

 

Piper walked away with a small wave before she could hear what Cait’s response was. Her ears were buzzing, and the last thing she wanted was to stick around and see if they mentioned MacCready again. Since he had no-showed for cooking Codsworth was at the fire, prepping to grill Deathclaw steaks. She knew they would be delicious, but Piper’s stomach was still a bit upset from last night. The oats were bland enough to keep down, but the recent mentioned of MacCready had turned her stomach hard.  _ God damn, he’s like a fucking ghost. He’s going to haunt me forever, isn’t he? _

 

Making her way to the tree, Piper curled up in the grass and leaned her back against the cool bark. The shade was a welcomed alternative to the blistering heat, and she absentmindedly picked at the patchy grass before pulling out her notebook. Her fingers were on fire, ready to write, but there was nothing she felt like she could write down. An idea began to burn in her mind a moment later, and she sighed. She knew she had to write about  _ him  _ to get these feelings out, but she refused to write his name. Her brain just wouldn’t allow her; she had lost her last notebook to him, and her mind wasn’t about to let her lose another.

 

_ Asshole. _

 

There, her first words on the paper. Written in small, capital letters across the first line. That fire in her mind crackled and burned, and she wrote furiously as emotions began to pour out onto her pages.

 

_ Asshole. Asshole asshole asshole. You  _ _ hurt _ _ me. I trusted you. You left me with bruises and bitemarks and feelings I don’t think I’ll ever recover from. I can’t go ten minutes without hearing your name or thinking about you. This is what hatred is, right? Non-stop thinking about the other person? Reliving old memories, wishing you could burn the ones that hurt and only remember the good ones? _

_... _

_ Remember that night that band passed through town? They were from the Capital Wasteland, they played some songs none of us had heard before… besides you. You knew every song, every word. It was the first night I heard you sing, the same night you almost got up and danced with some of the others in front of the stage (you blamed it on the booze, but your foot is always tapping when a good song comes on the radio). I had no idea you could sing, and it took me by surprise. That was probably the same night I formed my big, stupid crush on you. Nat always teased me for falling for people who knew how to sing. Dad always sang to us, so it probably stems from that somehow. Everyone was singing along, but I only heard you. I… When the frontwoman sang  _ Easy Living,  _ your voice was the only one I heard. Which sounds cheesy as all hell, but, you know... _

_ You’re stupid, you know that? You’re a caring, stupid asshole. With your bad jokes that always make me laugh. The way your hands fidget when you’re bored, and how you always hide your smile behind your hands, which somehow makes your smiles seem even bigger. _

_....You were a mayor! A mayor! A child mayor! I can’t even imagine you as a kid. I can’t imagine you swearing, bossing others around, being the big man on campus. I want to hear more stories about Little Lamplight. God, I could probably turn it into a series, with you as the main character. I would love to hear your opinion on it. _

_ Wait, when did this turn into a letter to you? _

 

She hadn’t realized how long she had been writing for until she heard Codsworth calling her name. “Miss Piper!” He chimed in that thick British accent of his, floating over to where she was seated. “Lunch is served! Deathclaw steaks with a side of seasoned gourd!” He passed her an opened can of water, and she took a sip from it with a smile.

 

“Save me some, I’m in the middle of something.”

 

“But of course. Write away!”

 

Once she was alone, her mind was buzzing again, and she put her pencil back to the paper.

 

_ This isn’t a letter to you. It’s not a confession, because you’ll never see this. I need to get these thoughts out, and then maybe hearing your name won’t make me sick to my stomach. _

_ By the way: you owe me. I did something stupid last night. I know you wouldn’t let me get to that point: you’re always the one who tells me to stop, gets me water, and I always do the same for you. I figured you were always just returning the favor. But after our night together… I’m not so sure. _

_ Did you saying you cared for me really hold any meaning to you? Do you actually, truly care about me? I have so many questions I want to ask you. I want to march up to your room and throw your door open. But there’s one question I just can’t get out of my mind: why did you call me her name? If it was to get me to leave, you could have asked. If it was a slip, why didn’t you just say that?... _

_ I guess that’s on me. I didn’t give you much of a chance to speak, and I feel ashamed about that. My emotions took over, all I saw was red and I remembered that bastard Franky and _

 

Piper leaned away from her notebook and took a deep breath. In and out, in and out; she could feel that rage bubbling back up at the thought of that asshole. MacCready might have been an asshole, but he was nothing compared to Franky.

 

_ I just want to see you again. It might kill me when I do, but no one has seen you. I might be mad, I might be hurt, (I might still be sore from our night together,) but I just want to make sure you’re ok. Because _

 

Piper’s heart was pounding, and she felt her face heat up. Her lead bounced against the page, and she took a deep breath, pushing out the words she hadn’t wanted to admit to herself.

 

_ I think I like you, and I can’t stand the thought of losing you over something as dumb at this. I’m stubborn, hot headed, loud, pushy, and constantly getting in over my head. Feelings are hard, and stupid, and I’m sure you know that. I’m terrified that me running out and not hearing you out will make me lose you forever. I can’t imagine that, because I think I like you. No, I. I  _ know  _ I like you. _

_ I like you, I like you I like you I l _

 

“Piper! If you don’t come over here and eat your lunch, I’m gonna eat it first!”

 

Hancock’s voice pulled her away from her writing, and she could feel a heat on her cheeks from what she had just written. “Just… give me a minute!” She yelled back, shoving her notebook deep in her pocket before jogging over to where everyone was.

 

Lunch went by fast, and Piper silently listened to the conversations going on around her. MacCready was still missing, and with Sole not there it was a quiet lunch. Strong was telling a story about the last time he had fought a Deathclaw (and how he wanted to ride one, which pulled a snort out of Piper), then Cait and Hancock bickered over who would get MacCready’s steak while Preston and Piper laughed at them. Danse ate quietly next to Piper, flipping through a Technical Document Nora has recovered during their last outing together. She could see Sturges glancing over at it and trying to read it, but Danse seemed not to notice. 

 

As if on cue when Piper took her last bite, a crack of lighting burst across the sky and everyone jumped. Piper left her plate and hurried to the apartment complex, keeping a hand over her notebook in her pocket as rain started to fall: she had lost too many notebooks to the rain, and she wasn’t ready to lose another. The downpour began just as Piper got to her room, and she nailed a protective board over her window so the rain wouldn’t get in.

 

It rained and rained for the rest of the day, which kept Piper in her room. For now, she had nothing else to write about MacCready (even though she swore up and down to herself that what she had written was  _ not  _ a letter to him, because he would never see it). Curled up on a small recliner pushed into the corner of her already-cramped room, Piper attempted to relax her buzzing nerves. She smoked a few cigarettes as she brushed through a few comics from her hidden stack; most of these stories were memorized by now, and Piper hoped Sole brought home some new comics for her to devour. 

 

There was nothing on her mind right now, which she savored: the comics were a good distraction to the thoughts rattling around in her mind. After she finished the last page of  _ Grognak the Barbarian, Issue #2: Cometh the Trickster,  _ she sighed and tucked her comics back under her bed. She pulled out a bottle of Nuka Cola Quantum and returned to her chair, sipping at the soda before lighting a new cigarette. 

 

She remembered how MacCready blew out his smoke when she was interviewing him, how it curled out of his nose like a Deathclaw’s breath during the winter. Piper was determined to learn how to do that, and she took a deep inhale in and swallowed the smoke. It tasted awful and she grimaced, and she quickly forced the smoke out of her nose. It wasn’t nearly as graceful as when MacCready did it, and it looked more like a burst fire extinguisher blowing out its contents than the simple puff of smoke from MacCready’s exhale.

 

It took her two more cigarettes and the better part of an hour to get the technique down, but she finally understood how he did it. If she breathed the smoke in as she inhaled, it didn’t burn her throat like her earlier gasp of smoke did, and she let it billow out of her nose like a haze dancing over a lake. It made her feel graceful, elegant, and she did it again before there was a knock at the door. Before she could answer it, her door swung open and a soaking-wet Cait stepped in. She shook like a dog and Piper yelled, frowning as she saw that Cait’s shake had put out her cigarette. With a grumble, she ground her cigarette down into her dirty ashtray, then looked at Cait. “What is it?”

  
  


“Wanted to let ya know that Nora’s back early. A few of us are at the bar sharin’ some pints if you’d like t’join us.” 

 

The mention of alcohol made Piper’s stomach curdle, and she shook her head. “I’m gonna stay in for the night, Curie’s orders.”

 

“Ah, ya shouldn’t listen to tha’egghead. Come join us whenever you’re feelin’ up to it. Nora said she misses you.” As soon as she came, Cait was already gone, the door swinging shut behind her. Piper sighed and went to pull out another cigarette, but her pack was empty. A frustrated sigh escaped Piper, and she chucked the empty pack into her wastebasket, watching as it bumped against some empty cans of water. Downing the last of her Nuka Quantum, the glass bottle soon joined the trash.

 

With her comic stack exhausted, her cigarette supply gone, and her stomach full from the Nuka Quantum, Piper had nothing left to do for the night. She wouldn’t go to the bar, for fear of possibly seeing MacCready and that the smell of alcohol would make her sick again. It still wasn’t late enough to justify laying down yet, and Piper knew that if she went to sleep now she would be awake before the sun was. At that moment, her notebook suddenly felt like lead in her pocket, calling to be written in. She didn’t think she had anything else left to say, but her fingers twitched as she pressed her pencil to the paper, and words flowed out.

 

_ It’s later. The sun’s down now, I think. Sometimes you can’t tell when it rains like this.  _

_ You hate the rain more than I do. You hate getting wet. It’s sort of funny, actually. _

 

In the margin, Piper doodled a small rain cloud, pouring down rain and a bolt of lightning. She chuckled at her own drawing, adding an angry face to the front of the cloud. 

 

_ You probably have a reason; I’d love to learn it. You’re such a private person: even though I’ve known you for a while, there’s still so much I don’t know about you. There are things I’ve learned from others, things I learned in the interview… but there’s still so much to know. I wonder if you think that way about me, even though I’m a loud mouth who doesn’t shut up about herself.  _

_ … Do you remember that one time those raiders tried to take over Sanctuary in the middle of the night? When the two of us held them off and you set off that landmine? God, I was so mad at you because I was sure we were goners, but the only thing we lost was our hearing for a few days. Even though you bought me booze to make up for it, I was still mad at you because we could have died. _

_ I’m still angry at you, but not like that. That’s not what my anger is like. _

_ It’s dull, quiet, and not always there. It’s in the background, rather than the foreground like the landmine incident. I guess it’s more of a hurt than an anger. I  _ want  _ to be angry, I really do. But I  _ can’t  _ be, and I don’t know why. I just hope you’re not angry at me for running out and acting in a blind, hurting rage. _

_ God, I’m stupid. _

 

Piper sighed and worried her bottom lip over with her tongue. She wished she had some cigarettes, some booze,  _ anything  _ to calm her nerves. Discontented, she sighed again and pressed her pencil back to the paper.

_ What are you doing? No one has seen you in almost three days. I’m worried. I’m sure everyone is. What have you been doing? Hopefully something more productive than I’ve been doing.  _

_ This isn’t a letter to you. You’ll never read this. Hell, I’m probably gonna rip the pages out and burn them before I go to bed. No need for any of this shameful shit to come out. And god, if you ever saw this? You’d probably laugh in my face. It’s so… dorky. _

 

A knock at her door made her jump, and Piper yelled “I’m coming!” as she got up as to prevent an intrusion. It was Danse, sans power armor but still in his tacky, bright-orange Brotherhood of Steel jumpsuit. It was offset by a soaking wet brown bomber jacket wrapped around his broad shoulders, his hair plastered to his square forehead.

 

“Knight Nora wanted to know if you would like to join her down at the bar for what I am assuming is alcoholic drinks and a very late meal.” Water dripped off of his nose and lips as he spoke in his roundabout away, and Piper raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him. “She expressed her disappointment when you did not come down with Cait.”

 

“Who’s there?”

 

The question made Danse raise his eyebrows in return, and he shifted in his wet boots. “There was the ghoul, Cait, Knight Nora with Garvey, Deacon, the two machines, and the mechanic.”

 

Piper let out a soft noise of surprise. “No MacCready?”

 

“I knocked on his door and he told me to go away. It was rather rude of him, to be honest.” 

 

_ At least he’s alive.  _ “I’ll probably pass. I feel like the smell of booze will make me sick again.”

 

“... Affirmative. I will go let them know. Stay warm, Piper. Have a good evening.” With that, Danse took a step back and did a military pivot as he turned and marched away. Piper closed the door and leaned against it, pinching the bridge of her nose.  _ God, it’s like he’s always on watch. Crazy.  _ Scrubbing a hand down her face, Piper licked her lips then walked over and kneeled on her bed. The side of her bed was pressed against the wall with the window on it, and she leaned her ear to the board over her window. Outside, the rail wailed and whipped the trees, and Piper was thankful she wasn’t outside right now.  _ Weather’s nuts. Hopefully people remembered to board their windows up or else they’ll be coming back to a surprise. _

 

She fell back onto her bed, her head falling off the edge. Her bedframe was old and creaked under her weight: it was one of the first beds Blue ever built, and the lack of handiwork showed. Blue had gotten better, but Piper couldn’t part with her crappy, squeaky bed. It reminded her of the old days, when it was just her, Blue, Nick, Dogmeat, and Preston living in a small shack in the center of the settlement. Before Preston and Blue had started dating, before Blue had heard about the Brotherhood of Steel and the Railroad. It was just the five of them, roughing it out and trying to build a new world.

 

There was no chance that Piper was going to go down to the bar in this weather, so she pushed herself off her bed and threw on her pajamas from last night. She grabbed her notebook and pencil before crawling back into bed, and as she pulled her blanket over her, another memory hit her that she desperately needed to write out.

 

_ I remember when we met… I wonder if you do. _

_ We stumbled into Goodneighbor, looking for supplies and a place to sleep. But after we met Hancock, everything changed. He told us to go to the bar, to enjoy ourselves and meet with him in the morning, and that’s what we did. We heard whisperings of a mercenary-for-hire from the patrons, and Blue wanted to see just who this person was. I told her to be careful, but she just smiled that all-knowing smile and walked into the private room. _

_ I don’t think either of us knew what we were getting into when those assholes finally left and you looked up from your drink. I still remember the first thing you said, with a scowl on your face: “Look pal. If you're preaching about the Atom, or looking for a friend, you've got the wrong guy. If you need a hired gun... then maybe we can talk.” You smirked at the end, and I knew right then and there you were going to ruin my life somehow. Either you’d be the one to get me killed, or worse… something like  _ this  _ would happen. _

_ I can’t remember the first time we spoke to each other, because you barely spoke when we first traveled together. I’m sure it probably wasn’t anything important: maybe it was during a meal, maybe it was during a firefight. _

_ Danse told me you spoke to him a few minutes ago, so at least I know you’re alive. I don’t know how long it’ll be before we speak again, and even though I’m hurt… I miss you. _

 

With a yawn, Piper closed her notebook and turned over in bed. Even though she didn’t want to sleep, the rain beating on her wall was lulling her there, and writing always made her tired. As she got comfortable, a thought crossed her mind:  _ one day this’ll all be over. It’ll all be better… _

 

_ I’ll be better. _

 

With those words, Piper drifted off to sleep.

 

She slept like a rock through the night, not stirring as the storm outside howled or when it finally died down and disappeared. In fact, the only thing that broke Piper from her sleep was the noise of someone banging on a door upstairs and yelling. It was loud, but pulled Piper away from her dreams for only a moment. She simply turned over, pulled her blanket over her head, and fell back asleep.

 

When she woke up again, this time it was on her own accord. Piper laid in bed for a few minutes, enjoying the darkness of her room with the board still over the window. As she got up and got dressed, Piper checked her neck out in the small mirror by her bed: the bruises were faded far enough that she didn’t have to hide them anymore with her scarf. She was thankful because it was still blazingly hot outside, but still took care to part her hair so it would fall over and cover her neck, just in case. She left her coat and scarf draped over her desk chair, and her .10mm was on her nightstand.

 

She used the hammer she kept under her bed to pry the board off of her window. Sunshine poured in and warmed her shoulders, and she basked in the warmth.  _ Another sunny day in the Commonwealth.  _ As she gazed out, she watched the river by Sanctuary lazily flow along. Mama Murphy was sitting by the edge in a patio chair, a book in her hand and what looked like a bottle of Jet on her lap. Piper was convinced those chems were going to be the death of that ancient woman. She had told Blue to talk to her, but she hadn’t yet: Blue was still dealing with Cait’s addiction, and was more worried about getting her off of chems than Mama Murphy.

 

Marcy and Jun Long were working the fields by the river, tending to some mutfruit bushes and arguing the whole time. Well, it wasn’t so much  _ arguing _ as Marcy ranting and Jun weakly replying to her. Piper felt bad for them and knew that they were both trying to come to terms with the loss of their son, but whenever she tried to talk to Marcy all she got were sneers and sarcasm. Jun was more understanding, but he rarely wanted to talk; so Piper avoided both of them as often as she could.

 

A few settlers whose names Piper hadn’t learned yet were sitting on the river bank fishing and chatting loudly, beers in their hands. Piper wasn’t sure  _ what  _ fish could possibly be in that river, but she sure was impressed at their dedication. They spent almost every day out there fishing and drinking, and even though they hadn’t caught anything, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Piper couldn’t fault them for that.

 

She let her eyes wander down the riverbank, and they froze on an oddly familiar person. Even without his duster and scarf, he was as recognizable as ever:  _ MacCready.  _ He had his back to Piper, but she could see cigarette smoke dancing around his head. His gun was strewn across his lap, and it looked like he was fiddling with something on its side. When she saw him she gasped, and she watched him turn around and look up from under his hat at what could have made that noise. Piper went into panic mode and quickly threw herself back on her bed. It creaked under her, and she hoped he didn’t hear that.

 

Piper barely had time to push herself off the bed and pull her curtains shut before there was a knock at the door. She answered quickly, and it was none other than Nora. Her long hair was tied up in a messy bun, and she had exchanged her Vault 111 suit and armor for a pair of farm clothes. Her brows were furrowed, deep in thought, and that made Piper gulp in anticipation. Nora closed the door, then pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

 

“Look, Piper,” Nora started with a no-nonsense tone to her voice, finally making eye contact with Piper, “I came back early last night, fighting my way through a metric shit-ton of Gen 1’s with Deacon by my side, just so I could drink with my friends and enjoy my time. But I get back and what do I find? That two of my best friends have been hiding out in their rooms, one getting drunk beyond belief and the other completely shutting themselves out for no apparent reason. Then Preston tells me that every time MacCready’s name is mentioned you get whiter than a ghost.”

 

“Blue, I—“ Piper started, but Nora raised her hand, cutting her off.

 

“Piper. I don’t know what happened between you and MacCready, but whatever it was needs to be fixed. I can’t have the two of you constantly running away and hiding out to avoid each other. If you guys stay friends, so be it. If something changes, then it changes. Make amends, make peace, make  _ whatever _ , but just make up. For me?”

 

Piper sighed, and then after a moment nodded.  _ She’s right. I really do need to talk to him. _

 

“Now, how’s my favorite reporter in the Commonwealth been?”

 

Piper and Nora sat on Piper’s bed and talked for almost an hour: about Blue’s latest mission with the Railroad; about Publick Occurrences; about how Nora might have found a body for Curie; about Nat; about Preston and Nora’s relationship ( _“I think he’s the one. I love him, Piper.”_ _“Lucky you.”_ ); and when Blue tried to grab Piper’s notebook to read what she had been writing (Nora always did that: she loved to see Piper’s works in progress), Piper flipped. She dramatically grabbed the notebook and almost fell off of her bed in the process, which made Nora chuckle.

 

“Oh, Piper,” she said with a smile, pulling the embarrassed journalist back onto her bed. “Sorry about that. Is this a personal journal?” Piper nodded in response, remembering that she still had to burn the pages of her ranting letter.  _ It’s not a letter! _

 

“Well, thank god you didn’t fall hard. Nick would’ve been pissed if there was a hole in his roof. Lord knows how thin these walls and floors are.”

 

Piper stuck her tongue out at Nora, and Nora laughed. “You’re so cheeky and cute. You’ve got spunk. It’s like I told MacCready earlier: that spunk and determination will get you two far in life.” Sole gave Piper’s cheeks a little squeeze, which thankfully hid the blush that popped up at the mention of how similar Piper and MacCready were.

 

Nora stood and fixed her bun before going to the door. “Please talk to him, okay? For me.” Piper nodded, tucking some hair behind her ear.

 

“You’re the best, Piper. Honestly. I’ll see you around!” With a smile and a wave, Sole was gone. Her door clicked shut, and Piper was alone once again. The silence was a bit deafening and a stark contrast from the noisy conversation her and Blue had just had, and Piper tucked her notebook away in the drawer of her nightstand. 

 

Piper barely had time to reflect on Blue’s words ( _ she’s right. She’s absolutely right. After I get some food, I’m going to go talk to him.)  _ before there was another knock at her door. Figuring it was Blue coming back to tell Piper something else, she walked over to the door and answered it with smile.

 

Instead of Blue, Piper was now face-to-face with the one person she never expected to see at her door: MacCready. 

 

He looked tired, with bags under his eyes and a worn expression on his face. Still, there was a kind, but sad, smile pulling at his bowed lips. An almost burned-out cigarette dangled from his mouth, and his lithe frame was accented by his white tank top and low-riding green pants. His gun and most of his accoutrements were missing from his outfit, save for his hat pushed back far on his head. His hair looked messy, poking out from under his hat, and he was scruffier than Piper was used to.

 

“Hey… can we—“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, what a chapter! I wonder what's gonna happen next!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and thanks again to Jennifer for being my beta!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, leaving kudos, and commenting! A shoutout to the-dead-pixel on tumblr for beta'ing this first chapter (love you, Jennifer! <3) There are more chapters coming soon! :) <3


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